THE BASICS: MEASURE FOR MEASURE by William Shakespeare, edited for brevity and presented by Shakespeare in Delaware Park (SDP), directed by Virginia Monte, opened on June 22 and runs through July 16, Tuesdays-Sundays nightly at 7:15 on “Shakespeare Hill” near the Rose Garden and the casino in Delaware Park. (716) 856-4533 www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org Bring your own chair or blanket, picnics are encouraged. Observe parking rules (tickets will be issued) and bring a light wrap because it can get cool when the sun goes down. All shows are free and open to the public. Goodwill donations are solicited by the actors at intermission.
Unlike in years past, there is no printed program, so I encourage you to read the playbill before you go although you can scan the QR code once you’re on the hill. There is merch available (I bought a WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A PLAY tee-shirt).
RUNTIME: 2-1/2 hours with one intermission
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: The Duke leaves Angelo in charge of Vienna, where Angelo quickly becomes a religious tyrant, condemning Claudio to death for immoral behavior. However, Angelo then offers to pardon Claudio if Claudio’s sister, Isabella, sleeps with him. Isabella is shocked but later seems to go along. Actually, she has Angelo’s one-time fiancée Mariana switch places with her and do the deed. Complications ensue. At the end, the Duke (Daniel Lendzian) returns to spare Claudio (James Anthony Caposito), punish Angelo (Luke Brewer), and propose to Isabella (Gretchen Didio). It ends with several possible impending nuptials: Juliet (Amelia Scinta) and her baby daddy Claudio, Angelo and Mariana (Solange Gosselin), The Duke and possibly Isabella, and there’s one more (see below).
THE PLAYERS, THE PLAY, AND THE PRODUCTION: All those characters mentioned in the thumbnail above? Yes, important, and considered the lead roles in this play, and well acted. But what makes this particular summer 2023 show one to remember is the character Lucio as played by an out-of-towner with a long list of national credits, and that’s Omen Thomas Sade. In Sade’s hands Lucio dips and dodges, he sleazes and pleases, he is outrageous and his ego is outsized. At one point in the play Mariana, tells us about Angelo: “They say, best men are moulded out of faults, And, for the most, become much more the better, For being a little bad.” And that could apply to Lucio in spades. More than a little bad, he’s a bundle of faults, a smooth operator, duplicitous and devious, and the audience loved, loved, loved him. His romantic (love/hate) counterpart is right there with him in over-the-top-ness, the formidable Kerrykate Abel as the bawdy Mistress Overdone who swings a pretty mean rolling pin and can belt out the songs with the best of ’em. Lucas Colon pays Pompey, Overdone’s goofy minion.
Of course it takes a village to round out such delicious characters and that includes the production staff starting at the top with director Virginia Monte. Anyone who’s ever read (and you can read the Folger Library provided PDF of the play here) and then later has seen a Shakespeare comedy knows that what’s on the page only comes alive with great direction. The costumes by Jenna Damberger really pop (especially Lucio’s red-hot Zoot Suit and Mistress Overdone’s vampy look) assisted by Kambrea Blu Lagrosa and by the wonderful wigs by Mary McMahon (Wardrobe Mistress is Jamie Mattheus). The dancing is smooth (what else could it be when Bobby Cooke choreographs?) and the fights, pratfalls, and stunts are quite physical as choreographed by Steve Vaughan.
Other cast members include Billy Horn Altamiraon as a Friar, Ben Caldwell as Elbow, Jeremy Kreuzer as the Provost, Kennedy Lee as a “Hathaway Sister” (see below) along with Alexandre Montesano and Ameilia Scinta, and Larry Smith as another Friar, Melina Sweeney as an Ensemble member, and “the boss” herself, SDP Executive Director Lisa Ludwig, as Escalus.
Alexandra Montesano, Kennedy Lee, Amelia Scinta | Photo courtesy Shakespeare in Delaware Park
MEASURE FOR MEASURE is one of six Shakespeare plays that have been designated as “problem plays” (including, by the way, ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE) either because of morally ambiguous behavior that isn’t completely right or wrong or simply because they are hard to classify as either comedy or tragedy. I was told in college that “if it ends in a marriage, it’s a comedy and if it ends in a death, it’s a tragedy. Period.” Spoiler alert: nobody dies in “Measure for Measure” (except for one sailor who dies offstage of natural causes) and the play ends with not just one but maybe three marriages about to take place. That’s a little murky (Shakespeare’s fault, not SDP). So this is a comedy and SDP plays it that way. Oh yes they do.
I last saw MEASURE FOR MEASURE ten years ago in the summer of 2013, first that year at The Stratford Festival where the great Colm Feore played the snake Angelo and it was decidedly serious. And then I saw it as a comedy later that same summer at Shakespeare in Delaware Park where it was set in the Wild West (in “Vienna Texas”) complete with many, many cowboy songs and additional material including the advice “Don’t squat with your spurs on.” So playing it as a comedy has some SDP history.
This year, in 2023, SDP shifted the scene from Texas to California in the 1940s with an Art Deco stage designed by David Dwyer and with a variety of not cowboy ballads but big band, jazz, and blues standards, each chosen to illustrate what’s happening on stage. Very clever. The evening starts with the “Hathaway Sisters” singing the Andrews Sisters’ hit “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” (To Me You Are Beautiful) with the lyrics “You’re really swell, I have to admit you/ Deserve expressions that really fit you/ And so I’ve racked my brain, hoping to explain/ All the things that you do to me.” And in the play people ARE doing all sorts of things to other people. In fact, at one point, after hearing that her baby daddy Angelo is about to die, to the Provost who is only carrying out Angelo’s orders, Juliet sings a 1920s song that became a hit for Louis Armstrong:
How come you do me like you do do do?/ How come you do me like you do?/ Why do you try to make me feel so blue?/ I ain’t done nothing to you.
At this point I have to heap huge praise on Phil Farugia for arranging the “Music Composition/Sound Design” coming up with note-perfect orchestrations for each singer. And it was so smoothly and flawlessly executed by Sound Playback artist Brenda Bridges, with Live Sound Reinforcement by Mitchell Sulkowski, and General Stage Management by K Gorny that I kept looking for the live orchestra somewhere on the hill. For an opening night in an outdoor venue that was impressive.
Lighting Designer was Emma Schimminger, Properties were by Kayla McSorley, Assistant Costume Designer was Kambrea Blu Lagrosa, Assistant Stage Managers was Riley Dungan and Theresa Banks.
I have to say that things may have lost a little momentum in the middle of the play, but then again on opening night they broke for intermission early to allow for a brief passing rain shower, and that alone might have thrown the pacing off a little bit. In 2013 I gave that year’s production only three Buffalos. This year I’m giving MEASURE four, which means, as you can read in the legend below: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.”
Lead image: Lucio (Omen Thomas Slade) and Duke (Daniel Lendzian) | Photo courtesy Shakespeare in Delaware Park
*HERD OF BUFFALO (Notes on the Rating System)
ONE BUFFALO: This means trouble. A dreadful play, a highly flawed production, or both. Unless there is some really compelling reason for you to attend (i.e. you are the parent of someone who is in it), give this show a wide berth.
TWO BUFFALOS: Passable, but no great shakes. Either the production is pretty far off base, or the play itself is problematic. Unless you are the sort of person who’s happy just going to the theater, you might look around for something else.
THREE BUFFALOS: I still have my issues, but this is a pretty darn good night at the theater. If you don’t go in with huge expectations, you will probably be pleased.
FOUR BUFFALOS: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.
FIVE BUFFALOS: Truly superb–a rare rating. Comedies that leave you weak with laughter, dramas that really touch the heart. Provided that this is the kind of show you like, you’d be a fool to miss it!