Susan Granger’s review of “Assassins” (Classic Stage Company – Off-Broadway)
After the death of Stephen Sondheim, I felt compelled to re-visit this cynically macabre musical, presented as a stripped-down revival, focusing on the desperately demented people who decided that their only remedy was to grab a gun and kill the President of the United States.
What didn’t occur to me until I was in my seat was how relevant the show is today, as investigations and prosecutions of those who participated in the January 6th Capitol insurrection and attempted assassinations of multiple members of Congress move forward.
In an insidiously stark fairground with a stars-and-stripes painted set, it follows the Proprietor (Eddie Cooper), who supplies weapons to nine volatile murderers as they pursue their various targets: “Everybody’s got the right to be happy/Everybody’s got the right to their dreams”….followed by “”Hey, fella, feel like you’re a failure? Feel misunderstood? C’mere and kill a President.”
Starting with frustrated actor John Wilkes Booth (Steven Pasquale), who went to the theater to target Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and including Lee Harvey Oswald (Ethan Slater), who shot John F. Kennedy in Texas, they tell their tales – in counterpoint to a folksy Balladeer (also Ethan Slater).
But there are also the wannabe killers who were foiled: Leon Czolgosz (Brandon Uranowitz) who loathed William McKinley; Giuseppe Zangara (Wesley Taylor) who shot at Franklin D. Roosevelt; Samuel Byck (Andy Grotelueschen), whose target was Richard Nixon; John Hinckley Jr. (Adam Chanler-Berat) who went after Ronald Reagan; and Gerald Ford’s frustrated femmes Squeaky Fromme (Tavi Gevinson) and Sara Jane Moore (Judy Kuhn).
Based on Charles Gilbert’s darkly comic concept with a prescient book by John Wideman & music/lyrics by Sondheim, it premiered Off-Broadway in 1990 at Playwrights Horizons. Then in 2004, it opened on Broadway. In this 2021 incarnation, it’s cleverly directed by John Doyle (“Sweeney Todd,” “Company,” “Pacific Overtures”), who excels with ensemble presentations but – in this case – needs a choreographer.
For me, the most memorable moment was when delusional Charles J. Guiteau (Will Swenson), the jittery lawyer who shot President James A. Garfield in 1881, swings his gun around at the audience. I immediately thought about the so-called ‘prop gun’ that Alec Baldwin aimed on the set of “Rust.” He said he had no idea it would kill the director. What if this ‘prop gun’ exploded?
Running one hour and 45 minutes, “Assassins” plays through Jan. 29, 2022 at the Classic Stage Company.