Billy Crudup, with his longtime companion 2001 Tony winner Mary Louise Parker, opened the Public Theatre's production of Measure for Measure June 17 at the Shakespeare in the Park's Delacorte Theatre. In Measure for Measure — one of the Bard's so-called "problem plays"— the Duke of Vienna (Joe Morton) seeks to return order to his city, now overrun with brothels and prostitutes. He announces he will leave the city and appoint virtuous Judge Angelo (Billy Crudup) as the ruler. Secretly he disguises himself as a friar and watches as the supposedly moral man condemns young Claudio to death for getting his fiancee pregnant, while Angelo seeks to exchange Claudio's death with a chance to sleep with the man's sister Isabella (Sanaa Lathan), who is about to enter holy orders. Measure for Measure, directed by Mary Zimmerman, runs through June 28.
