‘Assassins’: Slayings That Wounded a Nation

“Assassins,” the controversial Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical about the killers of U.S. presidents, is a tough sell under any circumstances. Tackling it in a period of surging patriotism is a particularly gutsy gamble, but Karesa McElheny’s accomplished staging for the Knightsbridge Theatre overcomes resource limitations to redeem the show’s problematic reputation. This hard-hitting production demonstrates why, now more than ever, attention must be paid to its troubling questions about the dark side of the American Dream.

With performances ranging from fully professional to riveting, this simultaneously hilarious and chilling evening assembles nine presidential assassins (some successful, some not) in a surreal limbo to tell their stories. Though crammed with factual detail (an advance read through the helpful program notes is recommended), the piece freely mixes fantasy and reality to unearth a common underlying theme in these characters: the corruption of the right to the pursuit of happiness into a vengeful sense of unfulfilled entitlement.

This conviction that “everybody has a right to their dreams” manifests itself in different ways, from the misguided patriotic zealotry of John Wilkes Booth (Beau Puckett) to the loony ravings of would-be airline hijacker Samuel Byck (Jeffrey Cabot Myers). (His crooning “Tonight” into a tape recording for Leonard Bernstein is especially creepy, given that Sondheim wrote the lyrics.)

Standout performances include Don Schlossman’s Charles Guiteau, the deranged Bible-thumping killer of James Garfield, doing a cakewalk up the gallows steps. Jay Willick is touching as the understated, oppressed factory worker Leon Czolgosz, driven by the promise of socialism to slay William McKinley. Sharonlee Mclean steals all her scenes with a comic-gem turn as Sara Jane Moore, the housewife who couldn’t shoot straight at Gerald Ford.

The production isn’t perfect. A live musical ensemble directed by Bill Newlin has some sloppy moments, and the lack of horns hinders the score’s various American musical styles. The minimal set requirements of “Assassins” could also be better served with more detailed props--it’s not readily apparent, for example, that attempted FDR shooter Giuseppe Zangara (Jamil Chokachi) delivers his song from the electric chair.

Though a few punch lines are lost to imperfect timing, most of the show’s black comedy is played to the audience-lulling hilt--until the show draws a bead on our most traumatic assassination with an expertly played confrontation between Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald (August Vivirito).

Though the brevity of the show’s initial New York run was often blamed on bad timing (the outbreak of the Gulf War), another obstacle was its lack of any opening for empathy--even the platitudes of the narrating Balladeer (Nathan Bouldin) ring hollow. That problem was solved with the addition of “Something Just Broke” (not on the original cast recording, but here), a heartbreaking number in which ordinary people sing of their reactions to the JFK shooting.

With the economical, straight-to-the heart musical and lyric precision that no one executes better than Sondheim, the song transforms a freak show into a moving collective experience of national grief.

*

“Assassins,” Knightsbridge Theatre Los Angeles, 1944 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. Saturdays, 5 p.m.; Sundays, 6 p.m. Ends June 9. $22. (626) 440-0821. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.