STAGE REVIEW : ‘Assassins’ Sometimes a Hit but Sometimes Misses Target

The Warren Commission would have loved Stephen Sondheim’s most recent musical, “Assassins,” now in a West Coast premiere at San Diego State University’s Don Powell Theatre.

After the bashing that went on in Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” the ultimate ode to conspiracy theories, proponents of the single-gun theory may relish seeing a musical that agrees unequivocally with the commission’s assertion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

According to “Assassins,” which premiered at New York’s Playwright’s Horizons during the Persian Gulf War, Oswald killed Kennedy for the same reason that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, Charles Guiteau assassinated President James Garfield and Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley.

All were rejects of the American Dream. Killing a President, holder of the highest office in the land and symbol of the fulfillment of the American Dream, expressed their anger at their own failures.

It’s an interesting theory. And coming from the Tony-, Pulitzer- and Academy Award-winning Sondheim, America’s most challenging and witty composer, it is not surprising that the show itself is filled with brilliant touches, most of them nicely realized in this talented university production.

But one of the chief weaknesses of the musical’s book, written by John Weidman and based on an idea by Charles Gilbert Jr., is that it is all theory, with no character, emotional or dramatic development. (The assassinations, which are part of history, come as no surprise to anyone.) And too much importance in the musical is placed on the belief that Oswald acted alone. Challenge that, and most of “Assassins” falls apart.

The show begins in a shooting gallery where would-be assassins are lured with the slogan: “Hit a Prez, Win a Prize.” Both assassins and would-be assassins step up to try; in addition to Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz and Oswald, we see Guiseppe Zangara, who attempted to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt; Samuel Byck, who tried to assassinate President Richard Nixon; Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, who, on separate occasions tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford, and John Hinckley, who attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan.

The show’s 17 scenes offer vignettes of the assassins and assassin wanna-bes. A dramatic line is drawn from actor Booth (who, it is speculated, also killed Lincoln because of his “bad reviews”) to Oswald: Booth actually coaxes Oswald to go through with his crime.

But the individual characterizations lack depth. Fromme and Moore, for instance, come off as goofy, brainless women, chatting about bullets and beads in the same breath. The general themes are far more compelling than the particulars.

Director Paula Kalustian, chairwoman of the musical theater department at SDSU and artistic director of the Theatre in Old Town, does about as well with this flawed material as she can. The youthful cast is a talented one. Standouts are Pace Ebbesen as a failed, haunted Oswald, and Rachel Lynn, one of the women in the Theatre in Old Town’s upbeat hit “Beehive,” who shows her versatility as the disturbed Moore.

Terry O’Donnell’s fine musical direction makes one wish there was more music and less inane talk. Bryan Welker’s versatile set design, nicely lit by B.K. Waggoner, travels from the shooting gallery to the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository with ease. Nick Reid’s costumes also smoothly cover over a century’s worth of events.

This ambitious production seems a perfect choice for a college production. Colleges should take chances, and with composers as important as Sondheim, work like this--which closed quickly amid controversy in New York--is always worth a second look. But now that the show is on its feet, it is clear that “Assassins” is not one of the composer’s more memorable efforts. While it dives deeply into questions about the danger that lurks on the dark side of the American Dream, “Assassins” does not come up with any answers--except in the most superficial of ways.

“ASSASSINS”

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert Jr. Director, Paula Kalustian. Musical director and conductor, Terry O’Donnell. Sets, Bryan Welker. Costumes, Nick Reid. Lighting, B.K. Waggoner. Sound, Peter Nordyke. Makeup, Krista Henson. Stage manager, Jenny Friend. With Todd Dubail, John Phillips, Jody L. Ashworth, Terrence Shea, Josh Escajeda, Melissa Smith, Rachel Lynn, Gregg Osborn, Pace Ebbesen, Sean Bernardi, Barbara Jean Medeiros, Christine Nicholson and Roger Cotton. At 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Tickets are $7-$12. At the Don Powell Theatre, San Diego State University. 594-6884.