Presidential killers and would-be killers take center stage at East West Players in Assassins, Stephen Sondheim at his most provocative, innovative, and engrossing.

In a series of dramatic/comedic scenes that both elucidate and entertain, Assassins attempts to explain what exactly prompted nine very different individuals to conceive of a crime, not only against another human being, but against America itself.

It’s an approach that allows composer-lyricist Sondheim and book writer John Weidman to let their imaginations run wild, as when John Hinkley, Jr. (Arvin Lee), hoping to prove his love for teen movie star Jodie Foster by assassinating President Ronald Reagan, duets arguably Sondheim’s most gorgeous love song with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Astoncia Bhagat Lyman), a member of the Charles Manson cult who’d tried to kill Gerald Ford six years earlier.

Even more daring is Assassin’s eleventh-hour meet-up between the country’s first successful assassin and his most recent counterpart as John Wilkes Booth (Trance Thompson) shows up at the Texas Book Depository to ensure that Lee Harvey Oswald’s (Adam Kaokept) name, like his own, will go down in American history for decades to come.

Completing Assassins’ cast of killers/attempted killers are would-be Ambassador to France Charles Guiteau (Gedde Watanabe), stomach pain-plagued loser Giuseppe Zangara (Aric Martin), bottle factory laborer Leon Czolgosz (George Xavier), Santa-suit-clad Samuel Byck (Christopher Chen), and bonkers housewife Sara Jane Moore (Joan Almedilla), the last of whom Assassins has sharing a bucket of KFC with nutso beauty Squeaky.

If it’s not already clear, Assassins’ potpourri of time-traveling vignettes is a far cry from the linear plot of a A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum or A Little Night Music.

And though Stephen Sondheim had written another “killer” musical a dozen or so years earlier in Sweeney Todd, theatergoers can be excused for musing on what motivated Sondheim and Weidman to base a show on nine men and women whose names have lived on in infamy.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find yourself asking what Assassins has to say about the country and culture that produced these murder-minded men and women, and the motives each had for planning a crime against the nation, whether out of idealism, or despair, or simply the desire for fifteen minutes of fame.

In other words, Assassins gives an audience plenty to talk and think about long after the final bullet has been fired, and never more so than at East West Players, whose magnificent cast is completed by Max Torrez as The Proprietor (who introduces the musical’s cast of characters and distributes their weapons) and ensemble members Michael Cavinder, Jalen Lum, Kym Miller, and Andrea Somera in assorted cameos, most notably Miller’s as anarchist Emma Goldman.

About to go into previews in March of 2020, it’s taken two long years for Assassins to finally reach its opening night (with virtually its entire cast intact), and endless as the wait has seemed, the production which director Snehal Desai has brought to life with abundant inspiration and flair is one well worthy of celebration.

Desai, working in tandem with scenic designer Anna Robinson, stages Assassins inside and in front of a split-level shooting gallery, our first glimpse of which has main cast members following instructions to “Hit a Prez, Win a Prize” as they launch into what could, with different lyrics, pass as a jaunty, festive show-stopper rather than a celebration of an American’s right to happiness regardless of the cost to a President and a country.

With only ten or so songs in its hour-forty-five running time, Assassins has a lot more “book” than pretty much any other Sondheim show. (Indeed, would-be Nixon killer Samuel Byck’s two wacko monologs don’t have him singing a single note.)

But the songs that there are range from the instantly-recognizable-as-Sondheim “Something Just Broke,” to a couple of tunes reminiscent of the early 1960s American folk music revival, to the patriotic march beats of “Another National Anthem,” and it’s hard to imagine an Assassins revival in which they are more sensationally performed than they are under the expert musical direction of Marc Macalintal*.

Thompson’s fiery, magnetic Boothe, boy-next-door Kaokept’s unexpectedly sympathetic Lee Harvey Oswald and Balladeer, and leading lady extraordinaire Almedilla in bats-in-the-belfry mode are particular standouts, but Chen’s deliciously deranged Byck, Lee’s introverted but intense Hinkley, Lyman’s delightfully ditzy Squeaky, Martin’s heartbreakingly pain-wrenched Zangara, Torrez’s dashing, dynamic Proprietor, Watanabe’s folksy, ingratiating Guiteau, and Xavier’s darkly passionate Czolgosz more than merit cheers as do multitasking, multitalented ensemble members Cavinder, Lum, Miller, and Somera.

Sharing credit for this most memorable of Assassins are Preston Mui and Jasmine Rafael, doing what choreographers normally do but with an emphasis on movement rather than dance, lighting designer Wesley Charles Siu Muen Chew in dazzling form, Cricket Myers delivering a crystal clear sound design, Stephanie Nguyen given each character just-right multiple-period outfits to wear, properties designer Glenn Michael Baker providing plenty of guns and more, and David Murakami’s projections, which prove stunning on more occasions than one.

Casting is by Andy Lowe. Tom Dang and Maya Nahree McGowan are understudies, and Dang doubles as assistant director. Davidson & Choi Publicity are publicists.

Brandon Hong Cheng is stage manager and Lydia Runge is assistant stage manager. Kevin Matsumoto is firearms master and Rogers Orion Barnes is alternate firearms master. Lowe is director of production and Cathy Lee is technical director, and there are literally dozens of other names that could be added to this behind-the-scenes list.

I’ve seen quite a few 99-seat theater productions of Assassins, but it’s been a good long while since it’s gotten the big-stage revival it deserves. This one is so good, it could and should go directly to Broadway.

*Macalintal conducts and plays keyboard in the house band, completed by May Zeng (trombone, euphonium), Tamara Vaughn (trumpet), Vincent Reyes (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Dan Gonda (reeds), and Christopher Spillsbury (percussion)

East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles.
www.eastwestplayers.org

–Steven Stanley
February 20, 2020
Photos: Steven Lam

Tags: East West Players, John Weidman, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Sondheim