The York Theatre Company opened its 2017/18 Season with Desperate Measures, a knee-slappin' new musical loosely based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. After a sold-out original four-week run, Desperate Measures extended THREE TIMES due to popular demand and ran for 16 weeks at The York.

In 1890, in a lawless territory out west, Johnny Blood, a hot-tempered young cowboy, finds himself sentenced to hang for killing a man in a bar fight. His sister, a novice nun in a nearby mission, is persuaded to plead with a corrupt governor to spare her brother's life. The governor promises to pardon Johnny if his sister, the Sister, will 'do his bidding' for the night. Adding to the hilarious complications are a hard-bitten sheriff, a voluptuous saloon girl and a priest who reads Nietzsche. It's naughty, it's country, and it's a New York premiere with music by award-winning composer David Friedman, book and lyrics by two-time Tony nominee Peter Kellogg, and direction and choreography by Bill Castellino (Cagney, Marry Harry). Yee-haw, verily!