Show And Tell Post 2: Asssassins

            My second show and tell post is about a show that I worked on during the first few weeks of classes last semester.  It is a show called Assassins written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.  I reread it a few weeks ago because, in my opinion, it is one of the wittiest, smartest, and most well written shows I have ever read/seen. I caught some of this when I worked on it for two weekends, but when I read it again, it all made so much more sense and I fell in love with the show all over again.

            It was first performed in 1990 on Off-Broadway. It was on West End two years later.  The revival was performed on Broadway in 2004 starring big names like Michael Ceveris and Neil Patrick Harris.  A fun fact is, without ever being nominated for a Tony Award, it was nominated for and won best revival in 2004 without the show ever actually being on Broadway.  Theatre Baton Rouge did five performances of it the weekend of Isaac, and University of Southern Mississippi will be doing the show sometime this semester.

            Assassins follows the story of infamous assassins throughout American history starting with John Wilkes Booth and ending with Lee Harvey Oswald. This one act story actually gives purpose to the assassins and sort of makes you feel bad for them. For instance, Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley, was made out to be a protagonist.  He has a monologue where he goes into detail about how hard it is to work at his bottling factory where he only makes $0.06 per hour. One of the final songs discusses why each assassin attempted our succeeded to kill their target. Some of their reasons include “the poor man’s pay,” for love (as shown by Squeeky Fromme loving Charlie Manson and John Hinckley trying to prove his love to Jodie Foster), for the South, and because Giuseppe Zangara’s “belly was on fire.” Some of the characters interact with each other and JWB seems to lead the way. Finally, at the very end, all of the assassins get together to try and convince Lee Harvey Oswald, the most famous assassin of all, to shoot JFK because if he does, then they will all be remembered.  Oswald gives their deaths purpose.

            One dramaturgical choice that Sondheim and Weidman made was to add a chorus. These chorus members played certain real life people, such as Emma Goldman, an anarchist, and President Gerald Ford.  This chorus also played a big part in showing how these assassinations affected the people of the United States. In the revival, they added a song called “Something Just Broke” which was the chorus members remembering exactly what they were doing the moment JFK was shot.  They were also talking to news reporters after Zangara’s attempt at shooting Roosevelt in the song entitled “How I Saved Roosevelt.”

            My favorite dramaturgical choice and character is The Balladeer. This character sings the story of the three main assassinations and tries to steer you away from them convincing you that what they did was right.  He sings the three songs called “The Ballad of Booth,” “The Ballad of Czolgosz” and “The Ballad of Guiteau.”  In “Another National Anthem” when the assassins are giving their reasons like mentioned earlier, he looks them each in the eye and says “You forgot about the country so it’s now forgotten you.”  He tries so hard to get through to these people and say that what they did wasn’t worth it because it didn’t change anything. 

            In the revival, they made a production choice that sent chills down my spine when I watched clips on youtube.  They turned The Balladeer into Lee Harvey Oswald right after “Another National Anthem.” They lit the scene up on Neil Patrick Harris in the Texas Book Depository as the tables turned and the assassins now tried to convince him. It was awesome.