Playwright: Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman
At: Open Eye Productions at The Storefront Theater
Phone: ( 312 ) 742-8497; $15
Runs through: June 18
By Jonathan Abarbanel
Presidential assassins are like taxicabs—there's never one around when you need one. At least there's not a good one, as Assassins colorfully shows. Most attempts on presidential lives—successful or not—have been made by failures, malcontents and certifiable crackpots almost always young, and who are motivated by personal grievance rather than politics. The average age of the four successful assassins was under 30, and of all nine of the wannabes in Assassins, it was less than 33. Most thought killing the President would benefit their personal lives, without regard to benefiting the country. The first, John Wilkes Booth, was the only proven conspirator among the lot ( although Assassins ignores conspiracy in favor of a lone gunman focus ) while the last, Lee Harvey Oswald, was the only experienced marksman. The ideal presidential assassin would be motivated by the national interest, and combine Oswald's technical ability with Booth's charismatic organizing talent. Such a person hasn't yet turned up in America, even though it may be raining and some people may be looking for a taxi.
Stephen Sondheim's music is difficult. The challenges are obvious in, say, Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music, both verging on opera; but several Sondheim shows sound deceptively simple, such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with its bouncy tunes. Assassins also deceives. Its folk-like ballads, cake walks, quotations from Sousa and other familiar Americana sound like pop tunes in various historic styles. But, with tricky key changes, tight harmonies, vigorously cross-cutting rhythms and frequent patter lyrics, Assassins is neither pop music nor easy.
On opening night, the cast lost its way several times amid tight harmonies or tricky rhythms, despite astute musical direction from Andra Velis Simon, who produced a fine sound with her nine-piece orchestra. Practice makes perfect. The company is likely to have achieved musical polish by now.
Although a chamber musical, Assassins is large and ambitious for a small company. Open Eye is overwhelmingly successful under director Christopher Maher, retaining the vehicle's deeply ironic concept of being half history and half sideshow. At a carnival shooting parlor, the barker encourages folks to take a shot and win a prize. 'Everybody's got the right to be happy. Everybody's got a right to their dreams,' he sings.
The deft 15-person cast is pleasant-voiced, and comedy dialogue scenes are particularly well played by Kevin Grubb, Kate Staiger and the scaringly ditzy Sara R. Sevigny. Steve Welsh's Italian is impressive. Costumes are haphazard but at least suggestive of 1860s-to-1960s period styles. Deanna Ziebello's scenery is economical but flavorful—especially her dead presidents carnival banners.
Curiously amoral, Assassins conveys that shooting the Prez won't fulfill your dreams, but never says it's wrong. Its message about American desire and violence certainly is provocative during our currently dark national time.