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One of the most common, and legitimate, criticisms of the music of Stephen Sondheim by performers and critics alike is that he's not tuneful enough. "Hummable," I think is the word most often used by these critics.
And yet somehow, a week after seeing The Arden Theatre's production of Assassins, I simply can't get the music out of my head. It may not be hummable, but goddamn if it isn't memorable.
That's a sure sign of a great production. I've got the original cast recording, but I've never found myself walking down the street singing "The Ballad of Booth" before. Point: Arden Theatre.
Sondheim's Assassins (with book by John Weidman) is a rather unlikely musical: take every person who's killed or attempted to kill a president, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley, Jr., put them all in a strange, carnival-like world where they can not only interact with, but also encourage each other... and then have them sing and dance. It's a strange show, and when it first premiered in 1990, while Americans were off fighting the first Gulf War, it wasn't a terribly well received one. But a 2004 Off-Broadway revival featuring Doogie Howser himself, Neil Patrick Harris, although short-lived, brought new attention to the problematic musical – attention brilliantly capitalized on by The Arden three years later.
Director Terrence J. Nolen had his work cut out for him when The Arden chose this show to kick-off their twentieth season. But with a partial cast of Philadelphia theatrical all-stars (including Jay Pierce, Christopher Patrick Mullen, James Sugg, Jim Poulos, Scott Greer, Mary Martello, Jeffrey Coon, and Ben Dibble) announced before last season was even over, it seemed that Nolen was up for the task. (Newcomers to the Philadelphia stage Erin Brueggemann and Timothy Hill round out the cast.)
The biggest thing Nolen did after securing his cast: get rid of that pesky ensemble and have the assassins themselves become the chorus. Hearing the men you knew would later attempt to kill Reagan and Nixon boast about saving the life of FDR, as opposed to having anonymous ensemble members do the same, lends a special kind of meta-referentiality to the piece and emphasizes the idea of a legacy of American assassination, as begun by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. The assassins were always meant to interact with each other, even egg each other on, but this staging, in which almost all of the assassins were onstage almost all of the time, results in a heightened sense of surreality – especially when you realize that The Balladeer, your narrator for the evening, is also one of the most infamous figures in American history.
But when you don't have an ensemble, you need a cast that can really hold its own. This one most certainly could. Every pair of eyes at the sold-out performance I attended was riveted to the stage, owing in large part to the play's brilliant casting. Nearly every number was a show-stopper. (James Sugg gets special commendation here, not just for his strong performance of "The Ballad of Guiteau," but for stealing the show every damned time he took the stage. Now there's a man who loves his job.)
The production is also aided immensely by David P. Gordon's set, John Stephen Hoey's lights, and Jorge Cousineau's projections. It's a different kind of set for the Arden: very edgy, very minimalist, very modern. It's the kind of stage you want to run around on, and the projections are used to great effect, amplifying the weird carnival feeling of the play, and usually serving to create a very unique kind of shooting gallery. It's doubtful that the production would have been nearly so successful without the atmosphere created by the show's designers.
Praise is also due to the orchestra, under the direction of conductor Eric Ebbenga, for not only performing the difficult Sondheim score well, but for doing it with so much vigor that the orchestra almost became another character on the stage, albeit an unseen one. Most impressively of all, perhaps, was the fact that they never overpowered the actors, who, though wearing microphones, were only slightly amplified at the performance I attended.
One week out and I'm still smiling in the afterglow of a performance of a play that, when you think about it, isn't really something you should be smiling about. Presidential assassination, after all, is no laughing matter. But despite the deeply-affecting nature of the topic, this production still manages to entertain and amuse. It's one of the first productions I've seen in the very new 2007-2008 Philadelphia theatre season, and I can already tell that it will be a difficult one to best.
James Sugg as Charles Guiteau, Jim Poulos as Giuseppe Zangara, Mary Martello as Sara Jane Moore, Christopher Patrick Mullen as Leon Czolgosz, Ben Dibble as Lee Harvey Oswald, Jeffrey Coon as John Wilkes Booth and Erin Brueggemann as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in Arden Theatre Company’s production of Assassins, playing through October 21. Photo by Mark Garvin.
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