Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Yakko |
AssassinsWell it's been a few months since I've listened to it but I'm a lil unsure of the theme that is pressented. Is the point of the musical stating that the American Dream is bull****? |
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| what_the_heck013 |
Pretty much.
"It's the other national anthem, saying, if you want to hear. It says, "Bullshit!" It says, "Never!" It says, "Sorry!" Loud and clear. |
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| Yakko |
But if that is the message then what is the point of Everybody's Got the Right? | ||||||||||||
| what_the_heck013 |
It's so much deeper. Assassins is a musical about people in pursuit of many things--fame, love, justice. Many things that are promised to us in the Declaration of Independence. This is what "Everybody's Got the Right" illustrates. Nothing in this show is literal. When the proprietor sings it, it's very almost tongue in cheek.
Freedom in America is almost a paradox at times. And Assassins discusses this. But there's a lot more to it, and a post on an internet forum will not do the musical justice. Go see it again. Or read the book. It's a beautiful musical, in my opinion. |
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| Yakko |
Well Sadly I have not yet seen this show. I've only heard the 2004 broadway cast. | ||||||||||||
| what_the_heck013 |
And try, if you can, to get the off-broadway cast recording. I find the performances a lot better. |
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| Yakko |
Why hate the 2004 cast? | ||||||||||||
| what_the_heck013 |
I never said I hate it. I don't like the orchestrations in some parts (I do like them in others, for instance, such as the opening). I think Cerveris is wonderful as Booth and Harris makes a PHENOMENAL Balladeer, but I do not care for the portrayal of Guiteau or Moore. But I think that ALL the performances on the off-bway are great as opposed to just a few on the 2004 cast. I also really don't like "Something Just Broke". I feel like it really breaks off the action and drama built up in the Lee Harvey Oswald scene. But it wouldn't make sense elsewhere.
I don't hate the 2004 recording, I just don't think it's the definitive recording. |
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| Yakko |
Well I'm kinda biased on the off broadway recording, since the revival was the first time I heard of Assassins. | ||||||||||||
| Sweeney Hyde |
^To me that equates to "Blah blah blah I don't want to take the time blah blah blah I don't want to give it a chance." | ||||||||||||
| mastachen |
I like the orchestrations better in the revival recording, but Victor Garber as Booth and Hadary as Guiteau are unmatchable. | ||||||||||||
| Salome |
Cerveris is a TERRIBLE Booth. the only performance that equals the original in Denis O"Hare who is as good but different from JOhnathan Hadry. the original cast is so much better. and I saw both so I know what i'm saying. |
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| Trevor reincarnate |
I prefer NPH to Patrick Cassidy, though.
But everything else, I like original. |
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| dolbinau |
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=amandakuchinski&search_sort=video_date_uploaded
Can anyone arrange these in order if it's not too much trouble  ? I'm aware of the basic song order but the dialogue etc.. confuses me. I need to see it; unless there is a better production on YouTube, perhaps?
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| what_the_heck013 |
I think this is the correct order:
-Opening -Ballad of Booth -Bar Scene -How I Saved Roosevelt -Emma Goldman -Moore/Squeaky kfc scene -Gun Song -Ballad of Czolgosz -Sam Byck Act I -Unworthy of Your Love -Ballad of Guiteau -Fromme/Moore Gerald Ford -Sam Byck Act II -Another National Anthem -JFK sequence 1 -JFK sequence 2 -Something Just Broke -Bows I HIGHLY recommend getting a hold of the libretto. Buy it or get it from the library. It is NOT a disappointment. It is my favorite book in a Sondheim show. |
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| dolbinau |
Yeah, I might have to buy it as it doesn't appear to be at my local libraries. But thanks for the order, very much appreciated  !
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| Brock07 |
A local theatre is doing it this fall....I'm kinda mad since it's my third favorite show and I was hoping that they wouldn't do it until I was out of school and/or old enough to actually get a role in it.
But I'm excited to actually see it onstage for the first time ever! |
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| Joshua |
Same here! There's a production going on in October here. I must see it. |
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| Brock07 |
I think ours is November...
But I'm going to go with all of my history major friends....should be lots of fun! |
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| Salome |
Patrick Casssidey IS the Balladeer. Harris is decent but he doesnt even come close to Cassidy's portrayal. vocally,emotionally and layer wise. Cassidy is the Baladeer like Yul Brynner is the King and Rex Harrison is Higgins. its just a part of him. |
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| what_the_heck013 |
^But he was in awful, awful Joseph in Dreamcoat. I don't care if you have an airbrushed on six pack! Forty is too old to play Joseph. | ||||||||||||
| Salome |
doesnt makec him terrible..just too old to play the role.
He is a wonderful actor..almost as good as his father was. |
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| RainbowJude |
ASSASSINS stuff...
That's a somewhat simplified reduction of how the American Dream is presented in Assassins. Yes, there is the idea that the American Dream is just an ideal rather than reality and that it is unattainable for some, but that's the same old commentary that's been at the core of a lot of American theatre. The important thing to remember is that the presentation of the American Dream in this show is from the perspective of the assassins. It is their interpretation and, on some levels, it is misinterpreted on their part. For example, they sing that everybody's got the right to be happy', when this is untrue. Everyone has the right to pursue happiness, but not the right to be happy. There's an important incongruence between those two concepts - an assumption that if the American Dream exists as an ideal, it must exist without moral judgement if 'everyone (is to have) the right to their dreams' and that the end, the attainment of the American Dream, justifies the means whatever it may be. Understanding this point is an essential step towards attaining any meaningful understanding or appreciation of the show. It creates the sense that these assassins are, from their own perspective, in service of their idea of the American Dream even as they are disillusioned by it and even as they try to achieve it. There's a bitter irony in that deconstruction (and re-construction) of the American Dream and a devastating implication that we all practice the same behaviour in some microcosm of our lives. The difference is that we don't all try to assassinate presidents; we are disillusioned by and try to destroy whatever we perceive to be in our way: our bosses, our fathers, our teachers, our lovers.
"Something Just Broke" is jarring and at odds with the rest of the show. It undermines everything that comes before it in the show, just as it comes together so perfectly in the sequence that precedes it. The justification for the incorporation of the song - that some people felt the show glorifies the assassins - is just ludicrous and indicates on the part of those people a very superficial reading of the show. There is no reason for the show to have such an extensively sentimental breakdown of what the average American feels about presidential assassinations. An awareness of the consequences of John Kennedy's assassination on the public is present in the "November 22, 1963" scene and I found it more effective coming from the perspective of the assassins that it did in the song, which comes from the perspectives of America's "normal" citizens and which seems so familiar to us from the way this kind of event is presented in the media. It goes completely against the alternative history idea behind the show.
Patrick Cassidy is phenomenal as the Balladeer. He sings the role magnificently and there's an authority and ease about him in the role that Neil Patrick Harris, despite offering a solid and valid interpretation of the role, lacks. The revelation that comes from Harris playing the role has largely to do with the doubling of the Balladeer with Lee Harvey Oswald, which was not done in the original Playwrights Horizons production but which was in no way a decision/interpretation that had no precedent before the revival of the show on Broadway. Later days David |
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| Life=Cabaret |
I love the flurry of Assassins threads!
I burnt a copy of the revival for my history teacher. He has been teaching at my school for a while and taught one of my directors when she was in high school. He made a comment to the affect of being disturbed how the 16 year old new all the presidential assassins so well. Now he knows why! I have not had any experience with the original, but I love the revival recording, and two of my friends who were not Sondheim-obsessed happened to find it at a library and loved it and became obsessed! So the show is able to reach out to a different type of audience because it speaks the disillusionment and disappointment so well. I think it is genius. Maybe it is because I haven't seen the show live, but I think that "Something Just Broke" is a very important part of the story and shows consequences for what the people do. In my opinion, it changed the show for the better. |