THEATER REVIEW : Orange Coast Carries Out a Successful ‘Assassins’

Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” wasn’t a big hit in New York but became a smash hit in a small theater in Los Angeles. What’s wrong with this picture?

Maybe Sondheim should open his shows on the West Coast. Maybe we know something New York doesn’t.

Consider the Orange Coast College production of “Assassins.” Director John Ferzacca has taken a musical that is structured clumsily, simplified it to its bones and made it work beautifully.

Ferzacca’s tempos sometimes are a little slow, and some pauses last a beat or two too long, but the sense of authenticity he has given John Weidman’s book and the earnestness of the musical sections are so correct that for once this book and score seem as though they belong together.

On David Scaglione’s imaginative carnival sideshow setting, made up of posters (“A Death Defying Act”) that spin to reveal the locales of the many scenes, Ferzacca lets the show speak for itself, without trickery or self-indulgence. He also has been able to cast his show impeccably: The presidential assassins, and a few would-be assassins, are so close in tone and attitude to the originals that it is often chilling.

For instance, Leon Czolgosz (Joe Dunham), who killed William McKinley, and Giuseppe Zangara (Carlos Felix), who tried to kill Franklin Delano Roosevelt, both have an intensity of passion that is unsettling, especially when mixed with the empathy for their lot that the actors create. Terri Mowrey and Harriet Whitmyer, as Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, who each bungled an attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford, are very funny and quite touching in their misguided, wide-eyed sense of purpose.

Michael Hebler’s Sam Byck, who wanted to incinerate Nixon by diving into the White House with a 747, is a trifle overdone, a little too mad to have the effect Hebler seems to be trying for. But David Herbelin’s John Hinckley (who attempted to knock off Ronald Reagan in order to win Jodie Foster) and P.J. Agnew’s Lee Harvey Oswald are right on target--obsessive, frightened and lonely.

The whole cast is impressive vocally, particularly Eric Anderson, charismatic and bitter as John Wilkes Booth; Craig Fleming, egocentric as Charles J. Guiteau, who killed James Garfield; and Rudy Martinez as the Balladeer who pulls all these tales together. Anderson unself-consciously and expertly pulls off the neat trick of being an actor playing an actor, and Fleming’s vaudeville shtick death scene has flair and a sense of frenetic looniness that are right on.

Very important elements in the production’s style are Rose Jussenhoven’s musical direction and accompaniment of Sondheim’s multi-period score.

* “Assassins,” Drama Lab Studio, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 2. $8-$10. (714) 432-5880. Running time: 1 hours, 50 minutes.

Eric Anderson: John Wilkes Booth

Craig Fleming: Charles Guiteau

Joe Dunham: Leon Czolgosz

Carlos Felix: Giuseppe Zangara

Michael Hebler: Sam Byck

Terri Mowrey: Squeaky Fromme

Harriet Whitmyer: Sara Jane Moore

David Herbelin: John Hinckley

P.J. Agnew: Lee Harvey Oswald

Rudy Martinez: Balladeer

An Orange Coast College department of theater arts production of a musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, directed by John Ferzacca. Piano/musical direction: Rose Jussenhoven. Choreography: Susan Thoma. Scenic design: David Scaglione. Lighting design: Dave Dunbrack. Costume design: Brenda Wyatt. Stage manager: Jody Marler.