‘Assassins’ Funny, Solid in Its Odd Way

Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” is a very odd musical.

How odd? The near-finale has killers and would-be killers from John Wilkes Booth to “Squeaky” Fromme begging Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate JFK and become the biggest star in their bloody fraternity.

This unfolds to a mostly bouncy, ironic score that sounds more appropriate for the orgasmic utopia of “Hair” than a show about insanity and murder.

Leave it to Sondheim (with help from John Weidman, who wrote the book) to get a tad wiggy on us. He created “Sweeney Todd,” remember, that ode to a London baker who chopped people into bite-sized bits and served them up in kidney (and leg and torso) pies.

“Assassins” isn’t as strong musically as some of Sondheim’s other work, including “Sweeney Todd,” but it’s funnier. At UC Irvine, director Bev Redman knows that laughter helps the gruesome go down and emphasizes the satire at the black heart of “Assassins.” Despite clumsy patches, it’s an eager, pleasing production at the Village Theatre.

Everything takes place on Barbara Krug’s slightly raised stage framed by steel works that resemble scaffolding. The abstract look, complemented by Don Guy’s rich lighting, is given some solidity by a continuous projection of vintage photos against the back wall to help tell each assassin’s delusional story and to place the audience in his or her time zone.

During this multimedia cavalcade, we not only meet up with familiar homicidal losers such as Booth (Ken Ward), Oswald (Christopher Marshall) and John Hinckley (Jonathon Parlow), but also the less infamous. Remember who killed President Garfield? It was the dandyish Charles Guiteau (Kurt Robbins). What about President McKinley? That was the bitter immigrant Leon Czolgosz (Damon Dodge).

They all get their time out of the shadows, with a few shining more brightly (and insidiously) than others. Parlow’s Hinckley and Jessica Pohle as Fromme share a funny, creepy moment while fixating on their obsessions, Jodie Foster and Charles Manson, respectively, in “Unworthy of Your Love.”

Other highlights come whenever Glenn B. Sidwell as Samuel Byck (who wanted to crash a 747 into the Nixon White House) skulks onto the stage.

BE THERE

“Assassins,” Village Theatre, UC Irvine, near West Peltason Drive and Mesa Road, Irvine. Today and Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. (714) 825-2787 and (714) 824-5000. $8-$10. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.