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written by Stephen Sondheim, directed by Adam Brazier

BirdLand Theatre Company, The Theatre Centre, Toronto

Feb 4-20, 2010

"Bang On"

Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical “Assassins” is not produced as often as many of his other works because of the uncomfortable nature of its subject matter.  Some may find the very notion of a musical about the people throughout history who tried--some with success, some without--to assassinate the U.S. President in appallingly bad taste.  Yet, the strange frequency of assassination attempts in the U.S. is a reality that cannot be ignored and if Sondheim and John Weidman, the write of the book, choose to examine it via the musical, so be it.  As it happens, the work is a masterpiece and shows Sondheim at the height of his powers.  

Any qualms one might have about the musical’s glorifying of assassins laid to rest by the creators’ use of numerous Brechtian techniques deliberately intended to cause a non-identification between the audience and characters and thus to make the audience to view the action rationally rather than emotionally.  The action is set within two frames.  The first is the setting itself, a seedy carnival shooting gallery, where the Proprietor invites fairgoers to step up and shoot a president.  Within this frame is a narrative frame provided by the Balladeer, who, as in Brecht and Weill’s “Threepenny Opera”, provides in the form of song the backgrounds of the eight sorry figures under examination.  That the Balladeer also plays the ninth assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, is further ploy to prevent identification of the actor with his role.  Besides this director Adam Brazier also has the actors play instruments, inspired no doubt by John Doyle’s famous "Sweeney Todd", that yet again makes us view the performances as performances. 

Besides this, the creators‘ have arranged the stories of the nine assassins thematically rather than chronologically, beginning with John Wilkes Booth but ending with Oswald, meaning the failed attempts of Samuel Byck (against Nixon in 1974), Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore (against Ford in 1975) and John Hinckley, Jr. (against Reagan in 1981) are mingled with the unsuccessful attempt of Giuseppe Zangara (against FRD in 1933) and the successful attempts of Charles Guiteau (against Garfield in 1881) and Leon Czolgosz (against McKinley in 1901).  The figure of different periods interact in order to reveal the similarities and contrasts in their motivations.  

What emerges is that only two of the assassins claim any political motivation--Booth to avenge the South and Czolgosz to create anarchy.  Yet, even with these two Weidman suggests non-political influences as well.  For Byck, Zangara and Guiteau it is an imagined personal revenge.  For Fromme and Hinckley it is an attempt to gain the favour or attention of a lover.  For Moore, it seems to be a vain attempt to give her life meaning.  Weidman and Sondheim suggest Oswald’s attempt was an alternative to suicide.      

The musical implies that the notion of the American Dream, where anyone is free to succeed, where anyone can become President, has a darker side where those who do not succeed have only themselves to blame for their failures.  The President thus becomes a symbol of they have not achieved and killing him gives them a momentary sense of superiority.  As Weidman and Sondheim clearly point out, assassinations in American may cause widespread sorrow, but they never cause change.  Democracy is so stable that the elected leader is immediately replaced, both as head of the executive branch and symbolic head of the country.

The production directed by Adam Brazier is full out success in every department.  It has been exceedingly well cast and is filled with a succession of outstanding performances.  Paul McQuillan has a strong voice and stage presence.  He presents Booth as South gentleman, deluded perhaps, but still a gentleman and the most self-possessed of a crowd of social misfits.  Steve Ross makes egomaniac Guiteau comically pompous.   His attempts to cheer himself up by singing “Look on the Bright Side” make us laugh and cringe with schadenfreude at the same time.  Mike Ross gives a moving performance as Czolgosz, a Polish immigrant in love with American anarchist Emma Goldman (well acted and sung by Kate Hewlett), who commits his act out of confusion and desperation.  

Zangara is the least well defined of the nine, a man who blamed whoever was President for his stomach pains, but Jay Davis makes a strong impression of a dangerous man.  The role of Byck, primarily a speaking role, is given to Stratford veteran Graham Abbey, who, sitting in his ragged Santa suit shaking with suppressed rage, is chilling in making his tape to Leonard Bernstein seeking recognition.  His gradual shift from pleading to threatening gives us a frightening view of a mind out of control.  

Weidman and Sondheim use Fromme and Moore like Guiteau as comic relief.  Although the two women did not know each other and their assassination attempts were three weeks apart, the creators present them as friends who egg each other on to commit their crimes together.  Trish Lindström is excellent in conveying the psychosis of the brainwashed Fromme, who truly believes her beloved Charles Manson is the son of God.  In contrast to her intensity, Eliza-Jane Scott is hilarious as Moore, a housewife so ditzy she accidentally shoots her dog.  Christopher Stanton makes a fine Hinckley, a love-sick nerd and would-be musician.  Sondheim must have fun writing the intentionally cheesy soft rock ballad “Unworthy of Your Love” that Hinckley sings to an absent Jody Foster only to be joined by Fromme singing it to her absent Charles.  

Martin Julien is an appropriately leering Proprietor, but if any one person steals the show it is Geoffrey Tyler first as the bluegrass/country western Balladeer who then reveals himself as Oswald.  With the costume change he trades in folksy cynicism for deep distress.  The musical imagines that Oswald is on the verge of suicide until Booth, baked up by the other assassins, encourage Oswald that killing the President is his only salvation, pathway to fame and validation of their own deeds.  It’s a horrific moment.

The production is low budget but this is a case where any hint of glamour would be out of place.  The focus is solely on the characters, their acting and singing, all the more effective because they are unmiked.  Adam Brazier’s direction is deft and he has drawn passionate performances from the entire cast.  Conductor Reza Jacobs is expert in handling Sondheim’s polystylistic score which matches the assassins with popular musical forms of their period.  How lucky we are to have BirdLand Theatre of Toronto and Talk Is Free Theatre of Barrie brave enough to combined forces to bring us such an important musical in such an intelligent and compelling production.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Miss Ross, Jay Davis, Trish Lindström, Paul McQuillan, Eliza-Jane Scott and Steve Ross. ©Guntar Kravis.