Madison Miyuki Sprague and Aaron Gibbs (Photo by Jordan Gohara)
Reviewed by Molly McLean
International City Theatre
Through March 9
RECOMMENDED
Desperate Measures, showing now at International City Theatre in Long Beach, is a Western musical loosely based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. The show shines in its Marx Brothers moments. It also gives us a taste of what Shakespeare’s first performances might have felt like.
The plot revolves around Johnny Blood, a wild feller thrown in jail for murder. His long-lost sister Susanna, now a novitiate, does all she can to free him, along with a sympathetic sheriff and Johnny’s lover Bella. The corrupt and foreign governor propositions Susanna in exchange for her brother’s life. The play basically revolves around this last plot point.
The show is best when it speeds up into slapstick, especially in the second act. The most exciting scene involves a fake mirror and disguise. In the song “Just for You,” Johnny and Bella’s complaining engages the audience and maintains the ironic mood. Most of the songs are sentimental and rarely change the plot or characters. This sadly slows down any hope for a well-taut comedy. The actors sing deftly with appropriate emotional intensity. It is difficult for them to capture the audience’s attention for the whole song since there are few emotional changes within the lyrics. The songs often hammer home a point that the actors have already delivered in lines.
The lighting by Donna Ruzika helps to imbue the set with dusky Wild West oranges, browns, purples, and greens. The lighting feels like the painted backgrounds behind Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. Kim DeShazo’s costumes, then, work well in contrast as they are as bright and broad as a Looney Tunes design. The director Todd Nielsen and designer Destiny Manewal clarify the locations using door frames, curtains, and other simple but effective set pieces to separate the jail from the saloon. This division of the stage into mini-locations does push the action upstage often.
All the lines are in verse. The only Shakespeare plays which are entirely in verse are the histories. It is unclear, then, why this cartoonish melodrama-comedy is in rhyming couplets.
The evil governor makes clear comparisons to himself as Trump, telling the audience to “Make Long Beach Great Again.” The actors all end the performance in a merry dance. Madison Miyuki Sprague plays the exuberant Bella Rose and lives up to the huge silliness of the character and the plot. The cheeky aside, broad performances, and the open-hearted merriment all feel like a call back to Elizabethan theatre.
International City Theatre, 330 E Seaside Way, Long Beach; Thursdays-Sat., 7:30 pm; Sun., 2 pm; through March 9. https://ictlongbeach.org/ Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including intermission.
