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Musical theater is traditionally known as the feel-good genre of theater, so how to explain Assassins, a musical featuring a virtual parade of presidential assassins and would-be assassins--and composed by the unofficial godfather of the modern musical, Stephen Sondheim, no less? Of course, in spite of a longtime lightweight reputation, musicals have meaningfully ventured into dark realms before, but Assassins, to judge by its recent successful Broadway production strikes a chord--and a nerve--as few shows have before.
City Lights Theater Company closes its season with Sondheim's exploration of the lives of nine assassins, and by extension, of the obsession with fame and power in some aspects of American society. The musical opens on May 22 in downtown San Jose.
Assassins looks into the dark, crazed ambitions of killers and wannabe killers throughout American history, from the more well-known John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald to the lesser-known assassins of Presidents Garfield and McKinley, Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz, respectively. Among other infamous plotters, the scary company also includes the attempted assassins of President Reagan, John Hinckley Jr., and of President Ford, Squeaky Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore. The cast also includes a narrator, known as the Balladeer.
The musical isn't the first time that Sondheim has given a singing voice to psychopaths, but the road to the Broadway stage--and to critical acclaim--has been more circuitous than it was for Sweeney Todd, the "demon barber of Fleet Street."
Despite the fact that it may seem tuned too perfectly into the high anxiety of the new millennium not to be brand new, Assassins actually first debuted off-Broadway more than a decade ago, at the advent of the first Gulf War, to less than rave reviews. It closed barely a month after opening. On the heels of that, an attempt to bring the show to Broadway got mired and ultimately lost in producers' negotiations. A 1992 London production led to some minor retooling in which a song was added.
A Broadway production of Assassins would have opened in November of 2001, but was scrapped after Sept. 11. The presence of one character in particular had too much awful resonance: Samuel Byck, who planned to fly a hijacked 747 into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon.
That eerie timeliness certainly hasn't faded less than three years later, but Assassins recently completed its journey to Broadway with a production that opened in late April. Last week, the production garnered five Tony award nominations, including best revival of a musical and best direction of a musical.
While the musical wows the Great White Way, City Lights returns the show to its alternative theater roots in a production helmed by Bay Area theater veteran Kit Wilder (seen last season at City Lights as Dr. Frank N. Furter in the extremely popular Rocky Horror Show). The cast includes Robert Brewer as John Wilkes Booth, Jason Arias as Lee Harvey Oswald, Dawn Timm as Sarah Jane Moore and Halsey Varady as Squeaky Fromme.
City Lights Theater Company presents Assassins May 22June 26 (previews May 2021) at City Lights Theater, 529 S. Second St., San Jose. Tickets are $13-$15 previews/$26-$28 gala/$15-$25 regular shows. For more information, call 408.295.4200 or see www.cltc.org.
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