Customer Reviews

Assassins (1991 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I originally picked up this CD because I was always interested in anything Stephen Sondheim wanted to try out. I consider "Sweeny Todd" to be his operatic masterpiece, but certainly he has no more underappreciated work than "Assassins."

At a carnival shooting gallery the assassins who have tried, successfully and not, to claim the lives of American Presidents come together. Each has their chance to tell their story in their own terms. Sondheim's brilliance is that he allows each assassin their own voice, which is best evidenced on the sweet duet "Unworthy of Your Love" between John Hinckley and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme wherein each bemoans their unworthiness to be loved by, respectively, Jodie Foster and Chalres Manson. Sondheim uses the simple melody in ironic contrast to the true meaning of the lyrics to powerful effect.

The integrity of "Assassins" comes from giving each character their say, from the vitrolic attack upon the memory of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth ("The Ballad of Booth") to the bitter fury of Giuseppe Zangara on his way to the electric chair ("How I Saved Roosevelt").

As John Wilkes Booth, Victor Garber ("Godspell," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Titanic") is the most recognizable name in the original cast, which also includes Jace Alexander, Patrick Cassidy, Terrence Mann and Debra Monk. "Assassins" began performances at Playwrights Horizons in December 1990. John Weidman did the dialogue with Sondheim doing the lyrics and music.

What got me really hooked on this CD was the inclusion of the show's climax, "November 22, 1963," when Booth and the other assassins show up at the Texas Book Depository to persuade Lee Harvey Oswald to join their ranks. It was a masterstroke to provide this on the album, which draws together the episodes of the show and underscores the irony of the final song, a reprise of "Everybody's Got the Right."

I have seen several productions of "Assassins." Unlike most traditional Broadway shows that are packaged for the hinterlands, each production of "Assassins" is unique, with the characters open to various types of interpretation. It is fascinating to see who gets to sing which songs and where they go for jokes in each production. If you have a chance to see a production in your neck of the woods, please do so.

How is it that so many people - even Sondheim fans - do not understand this show?

It is not a traditional book musical, being more like a revue in structure but that should not upset people.

Some seem to think it glorifies (encourages?) assassination attempts. This is nonsense. It does ask audience members to take a critical look at a nation where "any person can grow up to kill the president." Could it be that some people just are not prepared to think about what is really being presented here?

Not liking the show, or not understanding it is fine, but why misrepresent what it is? ASSASSINS was NOT a flop on Broadway: THIS production never played on Broadway. It was scheduled for a limited run off-Broadway in December 1990 and January 1991, and all performances were sold out even before the run began. That makes it a hit! A new production finally brough the show to Studio 54 on April 22 and garnered RAVE reviews, even from the same critics who did not like the show in 1991! (It just goes to show waht an unpopular president and an unpopular war can do to people's perceptions!!)

In telling the stories of American Presidential assassinations (or attempted assassinations) Sondheim uses many American music forms: ballads to cakewalks to marches to bubblegum pop and each segment has its own unique flavour.

The recording is another first rate affair from RCA Victor with excellent program notes, a detailed synopsis, histories of the assassins and a full libretto. For the most part it features only the musical segments but does include the entire final scene: A dramatic showdown between Lee Harvey Oswald and the other assassins. A shame it did not include Sam Byck's two hysterical (in both senses of the word) monologues.

Some listeners object to all the dialogue that is included here. It amounts to one track that can easily be skipped. The disc does not include the number "Something Just Broke" because it was not written until the 1992 London production.

Of course the best way to appreciate ASSASSINS is to see it live in the theatre, and the current Broadway production will give people a chance to do just that.

I have seen many bizarre concepts for musicals. Some unique. (ie. Witches of Eastwick) Some obvious. (ie. Saturday Night Fever) And Some that are just plain pointless (ie Carrie: the Musical.) But Sondheim with his many talents have displayed to us his knack for the most surreal concepts for musicals ranging from the world of fairy tales, burlesque entertainment, and the true story of a homicidal pair who killed, cooked, and ate their victims. But in Assassins we are given, once again, a new and inventive concept, filled with lyrics and dialogue that's both dark, humorous, melancoly, and disturbingly inciteful. Probably the most powerful scene in the play is the scene enclosed in the CD whereas all the assassins of the past and future egg on Lee Harvey Oswald to turn the gun away from himself and towards the president. Along with an electric and delightful score by Sondheim. Which supplies a variety of contemporary music from each timeframe. And now for the performances. The one that sticks out the most has to be Victor Garber (Titanic, Godspell, Sweeney Todd) as disgruntled southern actor and infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth. and also Terrence Mann (Les Miserables, Cats, Chorus Line) as Czolgosz. But obviously I couldn't mention every single divinely decadent performance. So I'll leave you with the obvious statement that I leave with practically every review I leave. BUY THIS CD. LISTEN TO THIS MUSICAL.

This is possibly THE unique Stephen Sondheim show (and certainly the most obvious example of SS making music theatre out of content no one else would ever dream of touching), and thank heavens it was captured so brilliantly for posterity.

The cliche that Sondheim doesn't write melodies is fairly scotched here -- this score is not only a strong contender for the composer's most sheerly tuneful, but a comprehensive musical tour through virtually every conceivable American popular music style from the 1860's onward.

Civil War balladry, barbershop quartets, ragtime, Sousa and Cohan patriotic anthems, Woody Guthrie folk tunes, bubble-gum pop, serial music a la John Cage or Philip Glass, even self-referential quotations, it's all here. The added weight of Michael Starobin's awesome orchestrations only underlines the fact that, merely judged as composition, "Assassins" is a stunning work.

The subject matter, as many have stated, is disturbing and courageously un-commercial, and, post Election 2000, eerily relevant. The famous comment reprinted in the preface to the printed libretto (a theatregoer at the original Playwright's Horizons production was asked by her companion, "Who am I supposed to feel for?", to which she replied "Us. You're supposed to feel for US.")is ever more apt.

The necessary suspension of disbelief is justified by every turn of Jerome Weidman's ingenious libretto and Sondheim's matchless lyrics, and certainly the Texas Book Depository scene, which is both profound and pathetic, and unforgettably chilling.

Still, perhaps the most notable achievement is the rich vein of dark humor which runs throughout, sometimes side by side with the most unsavory of images, and by way of which many of the most potent observations are made.

The original cast is in sum and parts perfection, and only the absence of the post-JFK-scene number "Something Just Broke" (added for the London production and since standardized into the playing script and score) mars the definitive stature of this most unique and particularly representative recording.

When a cast album can dare halting the musical flow by ending with a fifteen-minute dramatic scene, and still leave one with the insidious opening/closing number running through the mind's eye, that's saying something. "Assassins" is a one-of-a-kind masterwork, and the original cast recording is a one-of-a-kind document of same.

I saw a production of Assassins a few years ago, and I haven't been the same since. It is a powerful story told through powerful music. This is one of the few cd's I listen to on a regular basis. This is the cd that made me a Sondheim fan.

Victor Garber's portrayal of Booth is by itself worth the cost of the CD. What a voice.

This is a tremendous recording, and it's sad the show is so obscure. Victor Garber's Booth alone is worth the price of the CD. A lot of the questionable themes in the show are not so questionable as they seem if you read the script of Assassins as well. This is really a wonderful piece of the besmirching of the American dream, on the point at which it stopped being `Every man can earn happiness' and became `Every man is owed happiness'. Sondheim could have written this show about lawyers, and suing everybody, with the same idea. (Admittedly, the dramatic possibilities of a musical about excessive litigation are kind of slim.)

While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the 2004 Revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins", the original cast recording is slightly better.

Best tracks of this controversial musical include:

Everybody's Got The Right
How I Saved Roosevelt
Gun Song: The Ballad Of Czolgosz
Unworthy Of Your Love [worth the price of the cd!]
Another National Anthem

An amazing score which gets better with repeat listenings!

Listening to this recording of Assassins again for the first time in nearly a decade, I was struck by what a rationalist Stephen Sondheim is. (Okay, I've always known that, but this recording made it really hit home.) The thread that runs throughout this show--often missed by critics--is the attempt to understand and explain acts of madness and futility. We know the reasons Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz, Hinckley, Byck, Squeaky and Sarah Jane Moore killed or attempted to kill their targets, because they have told us in confessions, notes, etc. But Sondheim the artist is such a rationalist that he must find an explanation for the actions of Lee Harvey Oswald. In real life we'll never know why Oswald killed Kennedy, or whether he acted alone or as part of a conspiracy. But here the reason, or at least *a* reason, a rationale, is provided, because--I have a feeling--Sondheim could not write this musical without providing a rationale for Oswald, because getting under the skin of his characters is what Sondheim's art has been about from the beginning. To me, the whole "missing out on the American Dream" subtext is just too easy, a cop-out, and for years this prevented me from fully appreciating this work. I found it lightweight when I first heard it, and while I still don't consider it top-drawer Sondheim, I am a lot more receptive to it now.

Still, there's something structural that doesn't work for me. The numbers are somehow largely stilted, small. I don't mean intimate and intricate. I mean not fleshed out as much as I think they need to be. There needs to be some sort of big anchor number. By "big" I don't mean a chorus line singing and dancing in sequins and tights. Rather I mean a big big thought that ties it all together, a la "Move On" from Sunday in the Park With George, or "Our Time" from Merrily We Roll Along, or the whole last 15 minutes of Sweeney Todd. It isn't here, at least musically. "Everybody's Got The Right" is just too small-concept a song to hang your hat on. I think there are the makings of a great work here, but I also feel like I'm experiencing a first draft; a very good first draft to be sure, but a first draft. (Note: I have not seen the recent Broadway revival and thus don't know if any of my objections have been answered. However, one new song "Something Just Broke," which I have heard, sounds a lot, both musically and conceptually, like "Four Black Dragons" from Pacific Overtures, and this, as well as hearing Bounce recently, is leading me to believe that Sondheim is starting to repeat himself as an artist.)

The recording is fine, but sterile; I wish a bigger and *livelier* orchestra were used. I don't a credit for Paul Gemignani as conductor here--though many of the musicians are the same ones in other Sondheim shows--and I think they could use him. As someone else mentioned, the music just sounds *cold* here. It's funcitonal, but never once rises above something we'd hear in a modern museum's high-tech interactive exhibit on the American experience. It sounds canned, in other words. The performances are good, but none is great, and some are just too hammy and broad for the dark material. Sometimes the justaposition works well, in pieces such as "The Gun Song" and "How I Saved Roosevelt," both of which contain the types of ironies and observations we look for in Sondheim. I'd recommend this CD for its interesting perspective and daring and unusual subject matter (how many people today know about Sam Byck, after all?), but I'd like to see a rethinking and rewriting of this work. It's fascinating and rewarding, but to my mind not quite finished...

This is one of my favorite musicals, used to be my 1st, but that's been replaced by another fantastic musicals, Titanic. But that's another matter in itself. I love it! The only complaint I have about this recording is that you have to listen through the entire "Gun Song" to get to "The Ballad of Czolgosz". I don't mind it, but it would have been better if they had put it on a seperate track. Victor Garber, Patrick Cassidy, and Terrence Mann all did excpetional jobs in this musical. The concept may seem weird to you, but you'll change your mind after you listen to it. I have both of the Assassins cast (this one and the '04 revival) on my iPod. I love it so much!

This is Sondheim at his best -- witty, driven, sweet and dark. Great stick-in-your-head tunes and strong commentary on the nature of the American character. Plus, you'll get a chance to re-learn some forgotten American history! Get it today!