There’s an odd sense of comfort that comes from knowing people have always hated American presidents. In this election year, when it feels like there’s never before been such divisiveness, it’s worth remembering that divisiveness has always been around. Some presidents were even assassinated, they were so reviled.
If you want to explore this in more detail, there’s a Sondheim musical for that. It’s called Assassins, and the University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Theatre and Dance will present it in February.
Assassins opened Off-Broadway in 1990, 34 years ago. Deb Leamy, the show’s director, said the plot explores what American presidential assassinations reveal about the state of the country—and it is somewhat surprising how prescient these revelations are for a 2024 audience.
As Leamy explains, Sondheim updated the show with a new song in 2004, and this is the version UNR musical theater students will perform, though the story is unchanged. It not only tackles political division, but also mental health, our nation’s obsession with guns and more.
“It’s a satirical bent on the assassins (both successful and attempted) of U.S. presidents. Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley … they’re all characters in the show,” Leamy said. “It could have been written today. The same problems are still happening, the same kind of disenfranchisement of people. We’re commenting on why people are upset with the political establishment and people are divisive and fighting, and nobody gets along. It’s all the same. So throughout the show, there’ll be very common themes that the audience can certainly relate to.”
How do you present such dark themes in a musical? As Leamy explained, Sondheim’s sharp lyrics bring audiences into the minds of these killers, making them, if not sympathetic, at least somewhat understandable. They’re experiencing many of the ills that plague us all—unrequited love, loneliness, rejection, anger at political opponents, etc. As Sondheim explores these issues, he capitalizes on their relatability through laughter. The show is “darkly funny,” Leamy said.
Although there aren’t any big dance numbers in the show, Leamy has turned to a live, six-person band led by musical director Aren Long, as well as “movement” designed by choreographer Nate Hodges.
“The show is really interesting, because it takes you through this myth of Americana,” Long said. “There are different styles to represent these different eras of American history and different themes. So it’s really intricate and nuanced and layered, and it takes a lot of familiarity with American language and style to understand. … It’s Sondheim’s brushstroke of what the American ideals are, and the American sound is.”
The styles, he explained, vary radically, from country hoedown, to Gershwin-like love songs, to big brass numbers reminiscent of Aaron Copland, to ’80s synth pop and more.
Hodges, whose formal training was in both dance and horror, specializes in staging the macabre. Rather than showy dance numbers, the movement Hodges brings is designed to heighten the drama, using exaggerated gestures to accentuate the absurdity.
“There’s a lot of writing that’s been done about how two people, say, will see the same horror movie, and one person will laugh, because there’s an element of slapstick, or something so ridiculous it feels funny. I think there’s a little bit of that in Assassins,” he said. “The idea that some of these assassins failed so miserably, it’s really humorous. And some of them were so mad with their own delusions that it feels unrelatable. So when we’re uncomfortable with the unknown or unknowable, that has a tendency to work as humor. I’m trying with all of the numbers in which the assassin is talking through their experience to amp up the hyper-theatricality, the over-the-topness. Everything goes into this heightened space, rather than a normalized, pedestrian space, because it’s not rational thinking.”
Take, for example, a barbershop quartet-style ode to guns. Hodges says that the student actors were uncomfortable portraying characters who freely and recklessly wield guns as if they were simply physical appendages. Hodges’ choreography forces audiences to confront the fact that such normalization—not unlike what happens today after mass shootings—is anything but normal.
“I think that the show really stands as a true testament to the American system, and what systemic problems can do to people, and how even the even the most crazy or harmful people in our country who have done these heinous acts are really just victims of the system,” Long said. “The idea of the American dream is not universal, and not applicable to everyone.”
The UNR Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins will take place at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 1:30 p.m., Sunday, from Friday, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 18, at the Redfield Proscenium Theatre in the Church Fine Arts Building. Tickets are $20 with discounts, and the show is recommended for viewers age 16+. For tickets or more information, visit unr.universitytickets.com.