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actionjaxson91

Assassins

I've never heard the music from Assassins. Is it any good?
metaphor17

YES.
what_the_heck013

Yes, very much so. And the concept of the show is very interesting, especially if you like history.
Salome

its sondheim of course its good.

Assassins is one of his most intricate stories..yet the music is not his most difficult ..but its quite strong.
actionjaxson91

my favorite Sondheim show is Sweeney Todd, which is his most complex score. Assassins is good though? original off-broadway cast or revival cast?
Salome

The original off-broadway cast is the best recording by far.

and Sweeney is NOT his most complex score. check out Sunday in the Park with George amd Pacific Overtures for complexity.
actionjaxson91

Sweeney IS his most complex score by far! Sunday is good but not as complex with the sudden changes and other things that Sweeney has.
Salome

there are more suddne changes,unexpected transitions oand complex melodies and themes in the score of Sunday in the Park with George.

do you know the show?
actionjaxson91

i'm very familiar with the show!!! i've seen it
LittleGavroche

I can't attest to the quality of the original off-Broadway cast, I haven't heard it, but I am quite a fan of my revival album. Neil Patrick Harris has the perfect amount of boyish-ness for the role while still being dark. And ooh. his name escapes me, but the man playing John Hinckley is another favorite of mine.

actionjaxson91, you might also be interested to hear that Michael Cerveris (of Sweeney Todd, obviously) portrayed the Proprietor on the revival album. And he is appropriately... creepy.
Sweeney Hyde

I agree with Salome...the music to Sunday in the Park With George, Merrily We Roll Along, and Pacific Overtures are all much more complex than Sweeney Todd.

Assassins is interesting in that for the most part the songs of each assassin reflect their time period. Off-Broadway is better...Victor Garber, Terrance Mann, etc. are all very good in it.
LittleGavroche

Terrance Mann! I didn't know he was in it, now I simply must find an original off-Broadway album! Laughing
Sweeney Hyde

He plays Czgoloz...or however you spell it...the guy that kills McKinnley.
LittleGavroche

Yes! My favorite Assassin.

eek. Must try and find it at the library tomorrow.
kozafluitmusique

One of my friends is in it at a local community theatre. Unfortunately, he's in it AFTER I move. I want to check out the CD sometime though Very Happy
medeanurse

I think my University is putting on this musical next year.

Does anyone mind telling me who the female characters are?

And what songs do they sing?

I think I am going to try out for it. Smile
Holly

medeanurse wrote:
I think my University is putting on this musical next year.

Does anyone mind telling me who the female characters are?

And what songs do they sing?

I think I am going to try out for it. Smile


So I was making a post that explained, but then realized that I'm tired and it made almost no sense, so try this instead:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins_%28musical%29
Aloysius

I'd definitly go with the original off-broadway cast recording, manily for the inclusion of the entire last scene. Thsi is probably the most powerful part of the show.
Sweeney Hyde

I was very indifferent to this show when I first read it. That was my first exposure to it. I found the script in that amazing theatre store in the Marriot Marquis in New York City. I was shocked, surprised, terrifyied, creeped out, and a little sick after I read it.

I bought the Original Cast Recording...liked it a little better...still didn't think much of it.

I have since gone back and re-read it...and re-read it...and re-read it again. I then went back and listened to the recording now and then...to mix it up a little...and then it got to the point where I wanted to listen to it. The show grew on me. I love it now. It was one of those shows that it took time to grow on me before liking it. Now...I still haven't actually seen it...but practically lol. I think had I saw it before reading/listening to it I would have liked it instantaniously...but it took time instead. I love it and anyone that hasn't at least read this play needs to do so.
Pannic

I'm getting a little interested in it, though I haven't heard or seen much from it. I'm curious about the part of John Hinckley, because that one's in my age range. Does anyone know his vocal range? Every site I've checked says that he's a baritone, but I'd like more specific information. I think his highest note is an E? >_>
Pannic

And now for no particular reason (other that I have nothing better to do), Conservapedia's Article on Assassins.

I confess that I am on the Left on the political spectrum, and I was looking at Conservapedia to amuse myself (its article on homosexuality is vastly longer than its article on JFK. I don't take it seriously). So I figured "Hey! Assassins is controversial! Let's see how this site lambasts it!" Nothing could prepare me for what came next. Now, I haven't actually seen Assassins, but I think I have a good idea of what it's about from recordings and Youtube bootlegs.

Whoever wrote this article, I have absolutely no reason to believe that he listened to anything more than the first two tracks, or rather, the Amazon.com samples of those tracks. Here is the article, and the bolded numbers are errors that I will elaborate on at the bottom.

Quote:
Plot
A musical by Stephen Sondheim1, Assassins follows the lives of several men (and one woman2) who tried, and sometimes succeeded, to kill an American president. Among those highlighted are John Wilkes Booth, Leon Czolgosz, Charles Guiteau, and "Squeaky" Fromme. The show ends with a song in which Lee Harvey Oswald, tormented, assassinates John F. Kennedy.

[edit] Themes
The show seems prima facie dark, and sordid, but the upbeat music casts a shadow of sarcastic, dark irony over the entire production, leading to the final message of the show - that political change is never brought about by violence, and those that believe to the contrary are, at best, insane3. The sarcastic treatment of the assassins themselves, and the concept of assassination, is relentlessly mocked. The show beings with a carnival salesman selling pistols to each of the assassins, singing,

"Hey kid, feelin' blue?
Don't know, what to do?
Hey pal, I mean you! Yeah!
C'mere and kill a president!"
Another main theme is the enduring power of the American ideal. The Narrator4 sings as much in the opening song5, "The Ballad of John Wilkes Booth,"

"Someone tell the story, someone sing the song

Every now and then the country goes a little wrong

Every now and then a madman's bound to come along

Doesn't stop the story... story's pretty strong.

Doesn't change the song."
The "Song" is the song of America, and the spirit of the nation, which no assassin or bad president can ever harm, theorizes the Narrator. The show is, in this way, very patriotic, highlighting the strength of the American ideal, but its subject matter lends it to an assumption to the contrary6.

[edit] Popularity
The show had a very well received initial run in 1990 on Broadway7, and a 1992 run in London. Both sold out. Despite this strongly patriotic theme, Broadway producers found the subject matter in extremely bad taste, and canceled a revival production slated for 2001, which they felt would be "too soon" after the attacks of September 11th.

The revival production, postponed until 2004, featured Neil Patrick Harris (of "Doogie Howser, M.D." fame) as the Narrator8. It closed after a brief run, leading some to suspect that the dark subject matter excludes the show's popularity. The show is currently not scheduled for production. Regardless of its unpopularity, the songs are some of Sondheim's best, featuring his trademark ironic wit and subtle wordplay calculated at a political idea9.


1. It's not just Stephen Sondheim's work. Give John Weidman his due credit.

2. Two women. Lynette Fromme AND Sarah Jane Moore.

3. This is neither stated nor implied at any point.

4. He is not called the Narrator. He is the Balladeer. A Narrator is typically an objective storyteller. The Balladeer editorializes the Assassins, and is not a character to look up to. He just keeps saying "What he was was off his head," while ignoring everything the other characters were saying.

5. Not the opening song. The opening song is "Everybody's Got the Right."

6. Congratulations on missing the entire point of the show. It's pretty much about the opposite of what that just said. The entire show is summed up in one sentance that Samuel Byck says: "No one listens." It's about how this "American Dream" has alienated people.

7. It opened Off-Broadway, and never made it onto Broadway until the 2004 Revival.

8. He also played as Lee Harvey Oswald. In most productions, your patriotic narrator shoots JFK.

9. Subjective.
Apples2for10

How many acts are in the play? I would think there would be two, but in the CD booklet and on Wikipedia there's no way of knowing what song seperates the acts (if there even is more than one).
Matthew

One.
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