Dangerously ahead of its time, Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” may have missed its mark when it premiered Off-Broadway in 1990, but finally came into its own with the currently-ill state of the world. At no other time in our history has a musical felt as eerily prescient and indicative of what ails us more than this show right now. That makes it less of a feel-good extravaganza, and more of a deeply-troubling treatise on what motivates the killer of an American President. As brought to glorious life (and death) by the Playhouse Stage Company at the Cohoes Music Hall, this production of “Assassins” hits all of its marks, taking deadly aim at what our society has become, and offering scant solutions other than the hopeful way art can sometimes transform history and ignite some sort of healing.
Directed tautly by Owen Smith, each assassin gets a turn in the spotlight, literally living out on stage the fame and notoriety that may, or may not, have been their purpose all along. In a brilliant stroke of casting, John Wilkes Booth is portrayed by Sam Perwin, whose towering stature is a nifty nemesis to the man whom his character took out in a theater (Abraham Lincoln). So begins a vaudevillian exploration of a series of assassins, or would-be assassins, that grabs the audience by the throat and never lets loose.
Offering much-needed comic relief are the two women who hatch a plan to kill Gerald Ford. Defying her character’s infamous history, Michelle Oppedisano as Squeaky Fromme is a devious joy, while Brittany Martel as her would-be partner in crime, Sara Jane Moore, even manages to imbue an unfortunate dog incident with uproarious hilarity. Stealing the show with a musical theater emotional breakdown on a par with ‘Rose’s Turn’, Dan Costello gives an absolutely devastating turn in his climactic number as Charles Guiteau.
Winding his guitar-playing way through the evening, The Balladeer posits questions for each of the assassins. Played by Daniel Jameson, who becomes Lee Harvey Oswald in a chilling, almost sympathetic transformation, it is a grounding and earnest performance in an evening of stellar across-the-board work.
Sondheim’s music is at times a cross between the patriotic American bands and a circus show, perhaps the greatest embodiment of the current state of politics any writer could conjure, and when it premiered in 1990 perhaps it was too soon for the world to see just how bad it could get. By today’s standards, the musical feels almost tame, but just striking enough to be powerfully compelling. In fact, the many shots of modern-day news madness form the backdrop to the start and finish of the program, lending it an immediate gravitas that belies the gorgeous work in something like ‘Unworthy of Your Love’, which could have almost been an 80’s power ballad – not at all inappropriate as sung by Marc Christopher’s John Hinckley Jr. and Oppedisano’s Fromme.
Without offering forgiveness or excuses, or even working overtime to make its titular characters too sympathetic, the musical does lend them new voices, soaring voices, that illuminate how each may have been a victim of loneliness, religion, poverty, or simply living in America at any given time. Our ills have caught up with us in the same way this show has caught up to the present moment. This production of “Assassins” is a must-see event for anyone who is discovering the musical for the first time, or revisiting it in the very moment it feels most resonant.
{“Assassins” is running at the Cohoes Music Hall through October 30. Find tickets here.}
