Through the eyes of assassins

American presidential assassins, especially played as sympathetic characters, are rarely the meat of peppy comedic-musical theatre.

However, one of the brightest constellations on Broadway is Stephen Sondheim, a composer who relishes taking risks. Through Assassins, now playing at Studio Theatre until May 23, he is waving a gun at society’s complacency in failing to recognize the have-nots around us.

Directed by master’s of fine arts directing candidate Clinton Carew, this 90-minute musical brings together an exclusive club of the United States’ most notorious criminals in a kind of a historical twilight zone.

Either through madness, misguided thinking or political conviction, these nine assassins succeeded in changing history. But rather than focusing on the presidential assassinations, Sondheim takes a microscope to these lost souls and follows the extraordinary journey of their lives.

“You hear their side of the story and they all try to explain why they did what they did,” says former St. Albert resident Allison Leggatt, now playing an ensemble role.

The notorious nine are: John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, Giuseppe Zangara, Lee Harvey Oswald, Samuel Byck, Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, Sara Jane Moore and John Hinckley.

To add an even more surreal quality to the musical, these anti-heroes bend 200 years of time and space first meeting in a trigger-happy revue-style carnival game.

Former Legal actor Joëlle Préfontaine landed the role of Emma Goldman, a 19th century freethinking political anarchist whose activism and speeches empowered the mentally ill Czolgosz to murder President William McKinley. “She was put on trial, but there was no evidence she was involved and was acquitted,” Préfontaine says.

The actor revels in a character that fought her causes with intellectual passion. “She challenged poor working conditions, advocated birth control and believed in free love.”

Wannabe assassin John Hinckley tried to murder Ronald Reagan in a bid to get Jodie Foster’s attention. However, men like Czolgosz were faced with unrelenting hardships and felt they were not getting their fair share of the American pie. “The United States is known as a free country, but it is not, and this story shows the measures people will take in trying to attain them.”

“This is 200 years of history live before your eyes. You hear the other side of the argument and it gets you cheering for the underdog.”