‘Assassins’ done in by pace, opening musical number
RagTag Entertainment’s version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” — a mostly fictionalized, often vaudevillian look at people who have tried to kill, or succeeded at killing, American presidents — takes advantage of the Onyx Theatre’s small stage. Director Sean Critchfield gives the show a pleasantly cramped carnival-booth feel.
The production occasionally surprises with unexpected riches. Kara von Aschwege as the lovably loony Sarah Jane Moore, too ditzy to kill Gerald Ford, communicates how desperately the housewife is trying to make sense of the world. Alex Mendoza, as Giuseppi Zangara, somehow convinces us that stomach pain led him to try to do in Franklin Roosevelt. Glenn Heath, as Leon Czologosz, William McKinley’s killer, projects fire and sadness in his eyes. And Jordan Bondurant lends a sweet, unaffected singing voice as the Balladeer.
Too many roles, though, are played by those who don’t seem connected to their characters. David Andino as Charles Guiteau (killer of James Garfield) sings a bouncy number on his way to his hanging. Andino seems to enjoy the bounce, but he’s forgotten Guiteau is a human being. Wendy K. Moss makes Emma Goldman a sweet ol’ grandmotherly type, and it makes you wonder if Moss and the director know who the anarchist was.
The first mistake is the opening. There’s a major number sung by Gus Langley, who’s been made our emcee for the evening. (This, unfortunately, causes the balladeer role to get lost.) Langley can’t handle the vocals. Whose idea could it have been to begin a musical with a man who can’t sing?
There’s a song in which onlookers take credit they don’t deserve for having saved the life of FDR. The lyrics are funny, but the actors make the mistake of knowing that. They mug their way through the number, thereby smothering Sondheim’s acute observations.
Critchfield also has problems in meshing the humor with the drama. The pacing is almost always too slow.
Tim Burris and Critchfield’s bare-bones set is colorful and charming, and the four musicians add needed zest.
But the production just doesn’t give a strong enough psychological look into these people. It makes you smile when it should be packing a punch.
Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.