Measure for Pleasure

Set in 1751, Measure for Pleasure uses classic farce, including mistaken identities, mismatched lovers, deception and wordplay.

Theater critic Anthony Del Valle summed the plot as follows: A valet falls in love with a young transvestite prostitute, who has the hots for a womanizing braggart, who desires the affections of a beautiful maiden.

The New York Times' Charles Ishenwood's review was mostly positive:"Clearly a labor of love for a playwright as enamored of the lively cadences of Restoration and 18th-century English syntax as he is of bawdy punch lines, 'Measure for Pleasure' (...) will tickle, offend or simply bore in measures that will vary according to your taste for blatantly vulgar sexual comedy.

But the play is essentially a nasty comedy-club routine performed in silk britches and powdered wigs.".

David Grimm's 2006 script is an affectionate, self-mocking salute to Restoration comedy -- the naughty genre that helped 17th century England recover from its Puritan phase.