Photo courtesy of Donald Campbell (https://www.instagram.com/duck.duck.soup/).

Things I knew about “Desperate Measures”, currently playing at Generic Theater, when I walked in…

1. There is a very exciting-looking cactus costume involved.
2. John M. Post, whom we still often address as “Pippin’s brother” since that was the role we first saw them in (despite being HRACT Award nominated since), plays an important role in the show.

The rest was a mystery, including the fact that it is a musical, only discovered upon opening the program and seeing a list of musical numbers.  (I was also thrilled to see a cat named Peppy joining Ensemble member Alexander G. McDaniel in the headshots in the program – something my cat Pepper very much approved of upon my return home – “a fellow Pep!” she exclaimed).

As it turns out, “Desperate Measures” is an incredibly fun take on the Shakespeare play “Measure for Measure”, made into a western comedy, with (many, if not most) lines spoken in verse with lots of clever internal rhymes (don’t worry – the Shakespearean language has been totally modernized and you won’t be struggling to figure what is going on).  Trying to describe the plot feels like the beginning of a joke – “A sheriff, a woman of the night, a priest, a nun-in-training, a governor, and a convicted murderer all walk into a bar…”  Suffice it to say – the convicted murderer has been wrongly incarcerated, the Sister is in fact the murderer’s sister, and everyone is trying to convince the crooked governor to issue the murderer a pardon.

Sounds like a pretty good time, am I right?  Director Patrick C. Taylor leans into the “live show” aspects of theater – with the vibes a cross between, if you’ve seen it, the “Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue” at Disney World, and a fourth wall breaking puppet show, where it feels like everything you need to put on the show has rolled up in a single trunk that can be easily packed up and moved to the next location.  There are funny, intentional missteps with the set pieces, well-executed by the ensemble and the stage crew.  There are crows being shot out of the sky (err… tossed off of the balcony that Generic runs its lights and sound from, in a consistently amusing schtick).  There is the aforementioned cactus, who, I might add, could be in every scene, and I wouldn’t complain.  And it is all put to a (simple by modern musical standards, but perfect for this show) soundtrack provided by pianist/musical director Andy Poindexter, who also gets in on the shenanigans, ducking out of the way of incoming bullets, and providing his hat as disguise, as necessary. 

The talented cast which Taylor put together all fully bought in, and acted their tails off.  John M. Post, as the convicted murderer Johnny Blood, is assigned a set of rolling jail bars for a dance partner, and wheels them around as is convenient for their character.  Post also provides the most stirring musical number of the evening, “It’s Good To Be Alive”, showing off their vocal prowess.  Blood is joined behind bars by the constantly sobering up alcoholic-of-a-priest in Father Morse, and Tim Suddeth’s slight wobble as he walks around the ever-changing square footage of the jail cell is perfect for the Nietzsche-obsessed role.  Blood’s jailer, the honest and justice-seeking Sheriff Martin Green, is played by Elijah Ramsey, who is generally playing the straight man-with-a-plan amidst the chaos that is the other caricatures of characters around him (and Ramsey’s baritone vibrato can fill a room with a warmth of sound that not many voices can provide).  Sheriff Green is the one who finds Blood’s gun-toting, crow-hating, straight-talking novice nun of a sister, Susanna.  Madison Cupp-Enyard is wonderful as the soon-to-be-nun with a strong sense of justice and a newly discovered taste for mischief, and her chemistry with her partner-in-crime (err… partner-in-justice?) Sheriff Green is palpable. 

The sheriff and the nun find themselves appealing to the “long name of the law”, Governor Von Richterhenkenpflichtgetruber (no, Pepper did not just step on my keyboard and provide a random assortment of letters for the name, thanks for asking).  The Governor, with his impressively long John Hancock (not a pun), is played most nights by Daniel Felarca, although we happened to see understudy Nick Shonk at our performance.  The role is over-the-top and ridiculous (and wonderfully acted to the point we couldn’t stop laughing as he took the time to sign a very long autograph for his “fans” in the crowd), a caricature of those in power who are outwardly all about law-and-order, but privately make deals to sleep with a novice nun in exchange for a well-deserved pardon.  

The chaste Susanna can’t bring herself to save her brother in such a way… but just maybe, they can get one over on the Governor, pulling the old sex-switcharoo with local “tavern worker” Bella Rose, having Bella act the part of Susanna for one night only.  The role of Bella Rose is taken on by Lori Thurman, who once again finds herself dominating a comedic role.  Thurman swings her hips around the stage with the best of them, and knows when to take over a scene or a song, pulling the momentum in her direction, and then naturally pointing the attention over to whomever has the next hilarious line or movement, best shown in the most fun couple of numbers of the evening – a “let me show you how…” song in “The Way That You Feel”, and then, later, Johnny and Bella’s duet in “Just For You”. 

This ability to move the focus of the audience around so effectively is the most impressive trick pulled by this cast and crew.  They fully understand the comedic beats – as if they have been putting the show on for years – yet still making it feel fresh every night.  It is like an improv show when that magical moment happens and everyone suddenly ends up on the same page.  And luckily for us – the page often ended with that cartoon of a cactus wobbling his way back onto the stage, prickly arms and all.  He’s worth the price of admission all on his own.