The Stephen Sondheim one-act musical Assassins has gotten mixed reviews and heated pro and con reactions since it debuted in 1990. What else would you expect for a musical about a group of misfits who took their political gripes and desire for attention to the pinnacle of anarchy by choosing to assassinate (or at least attempt to) a president of the United States. Los Angeles first saw the show in 1993 and now, after a two-year delay because of Covid 19, East West Players has opened their new production in Little Toyko.
The cast of ASSASSINS (all photos by Steven Lam)
Sondheim’s songs. along with scenes by book writer John Weidman, look at Charles Guiteau (Gedde Watanabe), Leon Czolgosz (George Xavier), Giuseppe Zangara (Aric Martin), Lee Harvey Oswald (Adam Kaokept), Samuel Byck (Christopher Chen), “Squeaky” Fromme ( Astoncia Bhagat Lyman), Sara Jane Moore (Joan Almedilla), John Hinckley (Arvin Lee) and the original role model John Wilkes Booth (Trance Thompson). The motley group first assemble in a shooting gallery where they get their guns from The Propreitor (Max Torrez) and are encouraged to a win a prize by shooting a president. It’s here that the first of the show’s many failures is on display. Anna Robinson’s scenic design doesn’t give the slightest hint of a shooting gallery or a seedy carnival sideshow. Instead, with its connecting cutout arches and swinging doors, it more closely resembles a cuckoo clock or a Gothic Cathedral’s clock tower. David Murakami’s projection design is a much better fit throughout the show, giving the scenes texture.
Joan Almedilla and Astoncia Bhagat Lyman
The book scenes are directed at a lackadaisical pace by Snehal Desai, making a long intermission-less show seem even longer. But more importantly, he seems not to trust the material. He has lost his grip on what is funny and what is tragic by overemphasizing the slightest bit of comedy so the audience is triggered to mostly laugh rather than be appalled by the characters and their deeds. There are plenty of comic moments written into Weidman’s script especially in the dippy hippie Manson Cult follower Fromme, the self-absorbed gadfly Guiteau and the Santa suit-wearing Byck (but putting him on a toilet was a low blow to the character). The character of Sara Jane Moore is one of the great comic creations in musical theatre in the past 30 years. And Almedilla’s characterization is the best version I have ever seen or heard since the original by Debra Monk. Her “Shit, I shot it!” becomes a true comic mantra. But by overdoing the comedy throughout, Desai has given the audience permission to laugh at any and every thing. Having lived through it, the JFK assassination has always been an open would with this writer. To hear audience laughter as the facts of that event are enunciated is just wrong. Setting the right tone for this show has always been a slippery tightrope walk, balancing the comic and tragic. After all, the main characters are assassins—they killed or attempted to kill a variety of presidents over the decades from 1865 to 1981. Here the clowns jumped off the tightrope and took control.
Arvin Lee, Aric Martin, and Adam Kaokept
There are two choreographers (Preston Mui and Jasmine Rafael) credited in the program—mostly I assume for stage movement as there are no real dance numbers in the show. The one song that usually is choreographed is Guiteau’s cakewalk up the gallows to his hanging. There were no steps up to the gallows in Robinson’s scenic design and Guiteau’s “Going to the Lordy” jaunty dance was sorely missed. Even a stepladder could have been used to give a little extra elevation to Charlie’s manic dance but no ladder appeared until the Oswald scene. Even though told by Booth to shoot the president from his sixth-floor vantage point, Oswald climbs a ladder, opens a hatch and shoots from the roof. There is a dramaturg (Stephanie Lim) listed in the program, but did anyone really read this script before producing this show? It just seems so misguided and misbegotten from the get go.
Arvin Lee and Astoncia Bhagat Lyman
Sondheim’s score (well played by musical director Marc Macalintal and his six-piece band) ranges over the time periods of the play’s various characters, from banjo strumming ballads to patriotic anthems. I have always considered “Unworthy of Your Love” one of Sondheim’s greatest love songs. Especially when delivered with passion and intensity as it is here by Lee and Lyman. It seemingly starts out as a hopeless puppy love song until you realize Hinkley is crushing on the teenage Jodi Foster of Taxi Driver and “Squeaky” is crushing on the Helter skelter race war cult lead Manson. The cast contains great voices, especially when combined in the group numbers like “Another National Anthem” and “Everybody’s Got the Right”. The ensemble (Kym Miller, Michael Cavinder, Andrea Somera and Jalen Lum) excels both in delivering the comedy of “How I Saved Roosevelt” and the unbearable tragedy of “Something Just Broke”. Adam Kaokept stands out both with his singing voice as The Balladeer in such numbers as “The Ballad of Booth” and with his acting as Oswald in “November 22, 1963”.
One final note: I know non-traditional or color-blind casting is more prevalent now than ever before but having a black actor portray Booth and shoot a white Lincoln he denounces as a “niggerlover” is just wrong on so many levels.
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