Assassins
Music/Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Directed by Billy Pacholski
at Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western (map)
thru Nov 10 | tickets: $45 | more info
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Solid production that (sometimes) tries too hard to please
Billy Pacholski presents
Assassins
Review by John Olson
Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical about the four men who have assassinated an American president and five of the others who made unsuccessful attempts to do so was metaphorically saved from the junk heap by scrappy young theater companies. Its 1990 premiere off-Broadway was met with mixed critical reaction and in the midst of the first Iraq War, the public was presumably unwilling to watch a show challenging American patriotic myths. It failed to transfer to Broadway and was not produced again for another 18 months. The first company to take it on after its two-month run off Broadway ended in February of 1991 was Eric Schaeffer and his two-year-old Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. Schaeffer’s production was one of several Sondheim shows to boost his fortunes. He’s since directed on Broadway and in London, and his theater, which at the time was operating out of a converted tire store moved five years ago into a brand new facility. Over in London, about the same time that Schaeffer was doing Assassins in Virginia, a 27-year-old director by the same of Sam Mendes directed the musical as the first production of a renovated and re-opened fringe theater called the Donmar Warehouse . Yes, that Sam Mendes – the Oscar winner of
Billy Pacholski, director and executive producer of this independent production, has taken full advantage of the opportunity to add his own touches. The changes he makes around the edges – at the top and bottom of the show – are at best not improvements and at worst, detractions. Fortunately, what lies in between is a very solid, well-performed and directed non-Equity production of Assassins. It’s staged in a ¾ round in the Viaduct’s larger space, and the set pieces, by Nick Passafiume, are an ingenious series of crates that, when separated, might be boxes in Lee Harvey Oswald’s Texas Book Depository; when assembled together might be the gallows at which Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield, was hanged. Pacholski moves the actors around the space effectively, and it’s perfectly appropriate to have them living in some sort of limbo. Upstage is a series of screens on which Frank Mares’ projections are shown. The projections run throughout the show and are sometimes effective, sometimes distracting. Sometimes they seem intended to be literal backdrops for the action, like the old films of a Chicago street he places behind Emma Goldman and Leon Czolgosz. Yet, in that segment, the camera is moving, suggesting the characters are walking, when they’re actually not. It’s hard to know, much of the time, what we’re supposed to be taking away from the projections. At other points, the projections are abstract shapes and at still others establishing shots of the location. It might have been less distracting to have committed to a single purpose or vision for them. Some of the moments that work are projections of Charles Manson and Jodie Foster during the singing of “Unworthy of Your Love” and the assassins shooting at projected images of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. And, some of the historical film and photography is helpful in establishing context, as are the elegant and historically accurate period costumes designed by Chris Tuttle.
The cast is strong, both vocally and in their characters, though, and that’s really what carries the day. Further, they commit to their characters with an energy and ferocity in Pacholski’s direction that pulls us in and keeps us engaged. Most ferocious are the maddest of the mad men. Edward Fraim plays Guiteau rather broadly, but to good comic effect, and he’s very watchable. Nick Druzbanski emphasizes the comic aspects of the ranting Sam Byck, who attempted to hijack a jetliner with the intention of flying it into the White House to kill President Nixon. It’s tough to make sense or any coherent threads of logic behind the monologues Byck actually taped and sent to celebrities like Leonard Bernstein, but Druzbanski makes a good go of it. Libby Lane’s Sarah Jane Moore is loud, brash and quite funny. Kris Hyland gives an urgent sense of desperation to his Giuseppe Zangara, attempted assassin of FDR. Sam Button-Harrison brings a sweet and confident singing voice and stage presence to the Balladeer (through struggling just a bit at the high end of the range of this vocally demanding role), and he’s a convincingly desperate Oswald as well. His performance in both roles is one of the best aspects of the production.
In contrast to the characters mentioned above, Kevin Webb’s Booth is cooler and more controlled than the others – he could actually use a little more fire or sly actorish charm.Aram Monisoff gives romanticism and a lovely, powerful singing voice to the would-be revolutionary Czolgosz, who kills William McKinley. Kiley B. Moore plays “Squeaky” Fromme as a sexy and slinky rebel, and together with Ed Rutherford as John Hinckley, gives us a fine reading of “Unworthy of Your Love,” sung to the objects of their affection – Charles Manson and Jodie Foster, whose images are projected on the upstage screens. Michael Swisher uses his beautiful, booking baritone to great effect as the Proprietor, singing “Everybody’s Got the Right to Be Happy,” though he doesn’t do much to suggest any character traits for this figure. (In this production, the Proprietor is not seen again after this scene, as he was in the 1994 Broadway production).
All that said, the opening night performance, after just two previews, was a little ragged. Transitions between scenes were slow, and the precise timing needed to land some of the jokes and heighten the emotions of the more powerful moments was sometimes off. Oswald’s rifle failed to go off when fired (JFK still died, though – as we saw in the Zapruder film projected above) and one of the actors went up on a solo line in the closing “Everybody’s Got the Right to Be Happy.” These sorts of things will surely improve in future performances, though, and the musical performances, both vocally by the cast and a terrific-sounding five-piece band led by music director Robert Ollis, were satisfying throughout.
 
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The production doesn’t need some of the enhancements Mr. Pacholski added, like asking the audience to stand and recite the “Pledge of Allegiance” before the show, but maybe that was just an opening night special. Nor did a pre-show mixed tape of American songs nor the post-show playing of “God Bless America” add to the enjoyment of the Sondheim score. Pacholski made an intriguing decision to move “Something Just Broke,” the song about personal reactions to the assassinations that was originally added to the London production, from the scene just after JFK’s assassination to the opening of the show, as a prologue. I’m glad to have seen someone try that – now I hope not to see it again. It sets a very different tone and less appropriate for the show than the actual opening number – “Everybody’s Got the Right” – which establishes the mood of dark satiric comedy that comprises most of the show. “Something Just Broke,” on the other hand, is a song of grief – and is most effective after the audience relives the JFK assassination (at least for those of us who remember it in the first place). The plus side of this move is that it allows the action to move directly from the assassination and Oswald’s breakdown into the closing reprise of “Everybody’s Got the Right,” per the original script. That juxtaposition is wickedly dark – suggesting the assassins have won after all, or at least in their minds that they have. The edginess of the transition, though, is largely lost when Pacholski inserts curtain calls into the number.
It’s probably not a good idea to try to improve on Sondheim and Weidman’s writing and, in this case, it’s simply not necessary. The heart of this production – the casting, performances (dramatic and especially musical) and basic direction – is commendable and enjoyable; as good as any local production of Assassins I can recall. As Sondheim says in his book ‘Finishing the Hat’, “less is more.”
Rating: ★★★
Assassins continues through November 10th at The Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 7pm. Tickets are $45, and are available by phone (312-212-3470) or online through Tixato.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at Assassins-Chicago.com. (Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by David Turner
artists
cast
Sam Button-Harrison (Balladeer, Lee Harvey Oswald); Kevin Webb (John Wilkes Booth); Edward Fraim (Charles Guiteau); Aram Monisoff (Leon Czolgosz); Kris Hyland (Giuseppe Zangara); Nick Druzbanski (Samuel Byck); Ed Rutherford (John Hinckley, Jr.); Kiley B. Moore (Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme); Libby Lane (Sarah Jane Moore); Michael Swisher (Proprietor, Gerald Ford); Parker Guidry (David Herold, Ensemble); Natalie June (Emma Goldman, Ensemble); Joey Eovaldi (Billy); Morgan Glynn Briggs, Jameson Wentworth (Ensemble)
band
Robert Ollis (music director, keyboards); Jill Waycie (second keyboard); Cali Kasten (percussion);Diane Hansen, Adam DeGroot (woodwinds); Derek Fitting (trumpet)
behind the scenes
Billy Pacholski (executive producer, director); Jen Marling (producer); Robert Ollis (musical director);Danny Starr (choreographer); Nick Passafiume (scenic consultant); Chris Tuttle (costumes); Kelly Lasley (lighting); Peter Storms (sound design); Curtis Cassell (production design); Frank Mares(video); Frank Mares (visionary, projections); Rebecca Berdel (opening animation design); Nick Heggestad (props); Cassy Sanders (dramaturg); Adam Goldstein (dialect coach); Zach Zulauf (asst. director); Addison O’Donnell (tech director); Shelly Hansen (asst. stage manager) Kate Merena(marketing); Charlie Rasmann, Mark Parker (asst. stage managers); Matthew Sheer (graphics); Birdie Garcia (video production manager); Pamela Luedeke, David Turner (photos)
