The chilling show with a killer cast
MiKe McShane was eight when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated i n Dallas. he can still remember Sister imelda, his schoolteacher in K ansas, collapsing after hearing a news bulletin about the shooting a thousand miles away.
‘This woman, who was authority to me, was shaking and screaming,’ McShane recalled.
a half-century on, he is part of the ensemble for assassins, the musical composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John W eidman wrote about nine of the 13 outcasts who’ve tried to kill an american P resident over the years. Four succeeded.
assassins begins previewing at the Menier chocolate Factory next Friday — almost exactly 51 years since JFK was shot. lee harvey Oswald, who pulled the trigger in Texas, is the killer who galvanises the other loners and losers, including Samuel Byck (McShane’s character) who in 1974, tried to hijack a plane and fly it into the White house. ‘ he knew Nixon was at home that day,’ McShane said drily.
aaron Tveit, the Broadway, TV and film actor, is making his UK debut as John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed abraham lincoln.
Jamie Parker, with a banjo over his shoulder , does double duty as the Balladeer, who sings about how ‘every now and then a madman’s bound to come along’, an d Oswald, who with the others sings about every - one’s right to a dream.
But as Tveit commented, the american Dream of having a house with a picket f ence j ust got repossessed.
it’s fascinating observing director Jamie lloyd and choreographer chris Bailey present the song another National anthem, a number which pits t he assassins against a group of innocent bystanders. ‘it’s like a battle of wills between the nation and the outcasts,’ lloyd says.
in the number which is part incantation, part sung, Sara Jane Moore, played by catherine T ate, tells of f i ring a shot at President Gerald F ord so her friends ‘ would know where i was coming from’.
The assassins mutter indignantly about their ‘prize’, in a crescendo of fury as they demand recognition for their dark deeds. Urged on by director lloyd, they’re like mutant creatures (or X-Men, as lloyd calls them), hiding in a dank, dark corner, waiting for their big moment.
The company’s rehearsing on the third floor of the Menier chocolate building in Southwark . in the base - ment, where assassins will be presented, designer Soutra Gilmour has turned the stage i nto a f unfair shooting gallery.
Some actors will lurk on stage, while others will sit in t he audience. ‘ The i dea is that you could be one of those people,’ lloyd said. McShane, Tveit , car l y Bowman — who plays l ynette ‘ Squeaky’ Fromme, a charles Manson disciple who also took a pop at P resident F ord — and andy Nyman (as charles Gui te a u , wh o killed President James Garfield) commented on how the show, written nearly a quarter of a century ago, still resonated.
Nyman suggested there was enough anger bubbling away in the UK to make him There fear the U .S. scenario could happen here.
was a lot of debate about how , once the cast started delving under the skin of their characters, they began — despite themselves — to empathise with them. lloyd said that makes the piece ‘all the more chilling’.
americans Tveit and McShane wondered how assassins would be received i n the States now , with terrorism such a threat.
it hasn’t been performed in london since Sam Mendes and caro Newling staged it at the Donmar Warehouse, 20 years ago, hence the excitement from Sondheim fans and the cast.
Nyman called the score ‘unbelievably gorgeous’. and there’s no denying it ’s a killer topic.