‘Assassins’ hits more bull’s-eyes than it misses | Review
On Christmas, you open gifts. On Easter, you partake of chocolate from a basket. But Presidents Day? Ah, you watch the musical "Assassins" — spotlighting those who sought to kill a number of our commanders in chief. A new holiday tradition?
"Assassins," with music by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, is onstage at Breakthrough Theatre in Winter Park — and I did spend my Presidents Day there, watching this most curious of shows.
In "Assassins," two narrators of sorts — known as the Proprietor and the Balladeer — guide the audience through the stories of famed would-be and successful presidential assassins. Some, like John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln, are well-known. Others, like John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan, are still in fairly recent memory. Some, like Charles Guiteau (killer of James Garfield) or Giuseppe Zangara (failed to kill Franklin Roosevelt), are found in the footnotes of history.
The assassins sing about their motivations, and intermingle at times, finally coming together to rally a hesitant Lee Harvey Oswald as President John F. Kennedy arrives in Dallas before reprising their idea that "Everybody's Got the Right" to their dreams.
The show, which premiered in 1990, has developed somewhat of a cult following and it certainly has Sondheim's signature lyrical brilliance, but I've always found it hit and miss, if you'll pardon the expression. Like some of its protagonists, the show just doesn't always find its target.
At the Breakthrough, however, director Wade Hair has put together a spectacle entertaining enough to paper over the cracks. His appealing set, with its patriotic bunting, has the right ramshackle carnival quality — and putting presidential photos over his array of shooting targets, right up to the current president, is a particularly nice touch.
Hair also does a fine job of balancing the recorded musical tracks with his volunteer performers. And they are key to this enterprise. That's because although the musical seemingly wants its audience to think about the motivations of the assassins and what that says about Americans in general — we want attention, we're blinded by idealism — it often just feels like a lesson in how we need stronger mental-health care in this country. (But that's a sermon for another day.)
And "Assassins" never seems to draw any conclusions or offer a viewpoint of its own. It also almost forgets it's a musical in a long stretch in Act 2 that at one point has John Wilkes Booth lecturing Lee Harvey Oswald on "Death of a Salesman."
But if the show as a whole doesn't add up to the sum of its parts, the individual actors make those parts enjoyable.
Particularly strong is Nico J. Divaccaro as Leon Czologosz, who feels betrayed by the American dream and kills President William McKinley. Divaccaro's gruff earnestness works for him, and he has good rapport with Marcie Schwalm, who plays activist Emma Goldman with a delightfully wry touch.
Felicia Melcer also scores, with laughter, as hapless Sara Jane Moore, who failed to kill Gerald Ford, and creates a double act with exasperated Jade Ganci as Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme.
Alex Saviano certainly looks obsessed as Hinckley, Chase Kensington has a devilish twinkle as the seductive Proprietor and Leo Polanco, in dual roles, makes a (too?) sympathetic Oswald and an endearing Balladeer, even if a song or two touched the limits of his range.
Everyone's decked out in attractive period-evocative costumes by Mary Lee Stallings, but surely someone could have found a suspiciously black and Brylcreemed Reagan-style wig for Larry Stallings, who has fun playing all the presidential targets. That's a visual joke in itself.
"Assassins" did leave me with one pervasive and frightening thought: In this volatile political climate, what would be the effect on the nation should another presidential assassination occur, now or after the 2028 election? The current president already has had more than one attempt made on his life.
It makes the lyrics of "Gun Song" a little extra chilling: "And all you have to do is move your little finger, move your little finger and" — click — "you can change the world."
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'Assassins'
• Length:2:10, including intermission
• Where:Breakthrough Theatre, 6900 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park
• When:Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 6 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m, through March 2
• Cost:$13-$25
• Info: breakthroughtheatre.com
