Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman and was based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses a revue-like style to examine the men and women who have attempted and/or succeeded in assassinating a U.S. President. The style of the music varies widely, reflecting the different styles of music popular at the times of the events depicted.
Assassins opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on January 27, 1991, and played 73 performances. The cast included Victor Garber, Terrance Mann, Patrick Cassidy, Debra Monk, and Annie Golden. The musical was supposed to have its first Broadway production in 2001, but the show was postponed after the events of September 11, 2001.
Assassins received its Broadway debut on April 22, 2004. The Roundabout Theatre Company opened the show on Broadway at Studio 54. After a limited run of 101 performances, it closed on July 18th, 2004. The performance starred Neil Patrick Harris, who is best known for his title role in the television series Doogie Howser, M.D., as the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald; it also featured Michael Cerveris as John Wilkes Booth, for which he received a Tony Award. The production was noted for a coup de theatre in which the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy was projected on the t-shirt of Neil Patrick Harris. Sondheim and Weidman took advantage of different tunes for their production; the point being to use songs that fit with the events in which the songs are sung.
The 2004 production won six out of seven 2004 Tony Awards for which it was nominated (Best Revival of a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Michael Cerveris), Best Lighting Design (Peggy Eisenhauer and Jules Fisher), Best Direction of a Musical (Joe Mantello), and Best Orchestrations (Michael Starobin).
Roles
- The Proprietor, owner of a carnival game that proclaims 'Shoot the President, Win a Prize'; also acts as Attendant for President McKinley, Hangman, and Announcer (in 'How I Saved Roosevelt' and 'Something Just Broke')
- The Balladeer, folk singer who tells the story as it happens, until the assassins gang up on him in 'Another National Anthem'
- John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln
- Leon Czolgosz, assassinated President William McKinley
- Charles J. Guiteau, assassinated President James Garfield
- Giuseppe Zangara, attempted to assassinate President Franklin Roosevelt
- Samuel Byck, attempted to assassinate President Richard Nixon
- Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
- Sara Jane Moore, attempted, after Fromme, to assassinate President Gerald Ford
- John Hinckley, Jr., attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan
- Lee Harvey Oswald, assassinated PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, as according to the Warren Commission
- David Herold, conspirator in the plot to kill Lincoln
- Emma Goldman, female anarchist leader, on whom Czolgosz has a crush
- James Blaine, Secretary of State during the Garfield administration
- President James Garfield
- chorus (bystanders, fairgoers)
Musical Numbers
- "Everybody's Got the Right" (The Proprietor & The Assassins)
- "The Ballad of Booth" (The Balladeer, Booth)
- "Ladies and gentlemen, a toast . . ." (The Assassins)
- "How I Saved Roosevelt" (Company, Zangara)
- "Gun Song" (Czolgosz, Booth, Guiteau & Moore)
- "What does a man do . . .?" (Goldman, Czolgosz)
- "The Ballad of Czolgosz" (The Balladeer & Company)
- "Unworthy of Your Love" (Hinckley & Fromme)
- "I am a Terrifying and Imposing Figure!" (Moore, Guiteau, Blaine, Garfield)
- "The Ballad of Guiteau"/"I am Going to the Lordy!" (Guiteau & The Balladeer)
- "Have It Your Way" (Byck)
- "Another National Anthem" (The Assassins, The Balladeer, The Proprietor)
- "November 22, 1963" (not a musical number, but a scene included on the original recordings.)
- "Something Just Broke" (The Company) (added during the 1992 London production at the Donmar Warehouse) (Oswald & The Assassins)
- "Finale: Everybody's Got the Right"/"You Can Close the New York Stock Exchange" (The Assassins, including Oswald)
Performing Assassins
Assassins is popular in school drama productions, as the characters of each Assassin change varying on the actor/actress playing them. Many different props can be used for Assassins, the most noticeable being the guns and an optional screen. The screen can be used as extra background (such as for Byck's car in the Have It Your Way scene) or for displays (such as the Presidential targets in the shooting gallery or pictures of Booth and Czolgosz during their respective ballads). It is also necessary to have a working camera, real food for the Assassins to eat, and a rope for Guiteau to be hung from, as well as a realistic-looking electric chair for Zangara (one can always use a normal chair and have the lights flicker on and off spontaneously to simulate electrocution).