Assassins (theatre): Difference between revisions

'''''[[Assassins''' (theatre)|Assassins]]'', with a score and lyrics by [[Stephen Sondheim]], is, to put it simply, [[Black Humor|a revue featuring the men and women who have killed (or attempted to kill) the President of the United States.]]

The show is narrated by the Balladeer, who comments on the assassins' actions and motivations. The various killers (including John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, John Hinckley, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, and Leon Czolgosz) interact throughout the play, regardless of time period. Their assassination attempts are represented like a carnival game—agame -- a bell rings when they succeed, and a buzzer sounds when they fail.

The show is often seen as a dark reflection on the nebulous idea of "the American dream". The assassins are dispossessed, disenfranchised and disillusioned, but they still hold a disproportionate sense of entitlement because they are in America: the land where ''any'' kid can grow up to be president, the land where—aswhere -- as the opening song puts it -- "everybody's got the right to their dreams". It also takes a sideways look at gun culture in America.

* [[Anachronic Order]]: The timeline jumps everywhere. Not counting the in-between character building scenes, the assassinations/attempts are presented in the order of Lincoln, FDR, McKinley, Reagan, Garfield, Ford, Nixon, Kennedy. Historical order was Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, FDR, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Reagan—butReagan--but that doesn't really fit with a proper dramatic structure.