If musical geniuses can update Romeo and Juliet to follow warring gangs the west side of New York or The Taming of the Shrew to poke fun at feuding actors who open in Venice, no one’s stopping those with lesser (but still notable) gifts from doing their own bard raiding. Good thing, too, or else we wouldn’t have the always entertaining, occasionally inspired, new musical comedy Desperate Measures by composer David Friedman and librettist/lyricist Peter Kellogg. This riff on Measure for Measure, set in the Wild West era, follows a novice nun (Sarah Parnicky) who tries to help her brother (Conor Ryan) who’s set to hang for killing a man in a feud over their mutual girlfriend (Lauren Molina). Assisting Sister Mary Jo is the deputy, who finds himself drawn to her while she develops decidedly non-nun feelings for him. Standing in the way is the sheriff (Gary Marachek), who picks the Sister’s defloration as the trade for saving her brother’s life. Shakespeare’s plotting is boiled down to easy-to-follow essentials—just enough for us to root for the good guys and boo the baddies. Storywise, we can usually guess what’s coming next—but not the twist right after it, so our interest rarely flags. Also helping is the energetic staging and—always an indicator that a musical is working—that three of the best numbers are saved for the second act and lift it higher than the first. One very funny showstopper, “Just for You,” even recalls the likes of “Everybody Ought to have a Maid” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” in ending and then adding a reprise—because the audience is having so much fun, we crave an encore. Peter Kellogg’s lyrics are well-crafted and clever (just compare them to the relentless false rhymes of, say, Pretty Woman: The Musical) and the music on the appealingly serviceable side. The cast is game—sometimes too game. Because I caught Desperate Measures on its final weekend at New World Stages, I am hard pressed to tell whether the preponderance of mugging for laughs was director Bill Castellino’s original choice, or if, as is sometimes the case late into long runs, the performers have drifted from discipline to grimace-inducing overkill. Least affected by the showboat bug is Sarah Parnicky, who rightfully takes the comedy seriously. The worst offenders are Lauren Molina, Conor Ryan, and Gary Marachek, who all cost themselves, their characters, the show, bigger laughs by stooping to lower ones. That’s a shame, because in its giddiest moments—and there are several—Desperate Measures is a playful hoot. When high school and college students end up tackling the show years hence, one hopes that they’ll realize the material is strong enough to measure up—with nary a hint of desperation.
