Old Town company stages appropriate, timely production

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic

Stephen Sondheim is an acquired taste. He is the thinking person’s musical theater composer; it helps if one’s thinking is somewhat bizarre.

Sometimes even those who are Sondheim fans are brought up short by the composer’s lesser-known works such as the largely neglected 1990 off-Broadway show “Assassins,” which is playing at Cygnet Theatre Company in Old Town through April 28. As the nation’s leaders struggle to enact stricter gun control legislation, a more appropriate piece cannot be imagined.

“Assassins” is an acquired taste, too. There is no protagonist, and because all the characters are angry and deranged – and because Sondheim and book writer John Weidman conceived the piece as a carnival sideshow – it is unsettling and in your face. And why not? That is the intent.

The characters are assassins or would-be assassins, and their targets, United States presidents. Not all the assassins are remembered. Not all were successful. That is also the point. In the show’s final scene, Lee Harvey Oswald (Jacob Caltrider, who also portrays the Ballad Singer) must be persuaded to kill President John F. Kennedy because the act will burn the names of all assassins in the public memory. Twisted logic? You bet. That’s Sondheim, too.

The show gets underway in a gun shop, where the Proprietor (Andy Collins, aided by his physical stature and costume designer Shirley Pierson’s creepy Wild West get up), sells firearms. Among the purchasers are Leon Czolgosz (Jason Maddy), who shot William McKinley; John Hinckley, Jr. (Kürt Norby), who attempted to kill Ronald Reagan; John Wilkes Booth (Braxton Molinaro), who assassinated Abraham Lincoln; Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed Kennedy; as well as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Melissa Fernandes) and Sara Jane Moore (Melinda Gilb), who separately sought to kill Gerald Ford. Other killers and would-be killers are Charles Guiteau (Geno Carr), Giuseppe Zangara (Jaycob Hunter) and Samuel Byck (Manny Fernandes). The program notes include the names of others still, mentioned or not by Sondheim and Weidman.

Also in the company, Sandy Campbell provides a finely drawn Emma Goldman, and bystanders are Bryan Banville, Stewart Calhoun and Mitzi Michaels. Musical numbers include “The Ballad of Booth,” “How I Saved Roosevelt,” “Unworthy of Your Love,” “November 22, 1963,” and “Everybody’s Got the Right (to be happy).”

Gilb and Melissa Fernandes, who are so extraordinary that someone must write them their own musical, provide moments of extreme black comedy. Aside from uniformly excellent articulation of Sondheim’s outrageous lyrics, the production’s major assets are Sean Murray’s clean direction, Ryan Grossheim’s two-level shooting gallery set, Chris Rynne’s lighting and Matt Lescault-Wood’s sound design. Thanks to Peter Herman’s wigs and makeup and Pierson’s costumes, the actors become ringers for their historical characters.

Take your sardonic funny bone. The entire show is a mordant joke. While you’re there, enjoy music director Patrick Marion’s flawless six-member band.

Just as Cygnet intends to deepen its relationship with August Wilson, the theater company will extend its ongoing reputation for super Sondheim (“A Month in the Country,” “Sweeney Todd”). Recently Murray announced that the company’s 11th season opens with “Company.”

“Assassins”
WHERE: Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St. (Old Town)
WHEN: Wed. and Thurs. at 7:30 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at 3 p.m.; and Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. through April 28.
INFO: 619-337-1525
WEB: cygnettheatre.com