Sondheim play is as disturbing as it is funny

The Broadway play will make its local premiere at the New Castle Playhouse.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- New Castle Playhouse enters the dark and creepy as it prepares for the upcoming production of "Assassins." This Stephen Sondheim musical, directed by Michael Cavalier, is making its premiere in Western Pennsylvania.
It opened originally off-Broadway in 1990, during the time of the Gulf War, and closed in 1991, a relative flop. Sondheim revised it and took it to Broadway in 2001, but it was soon canceled because of the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, many critics see this musical, though disturbing, as a one of Sondheim's masterpieces.
"It is the most unique play Sondheim has written," said Cavalier, who is fascinated with the work. "It is dark and also very humorous in places. It will have you laughing, then all of a sudden feel disturbed because you laughed."
All a game
The play is set in a fairground, and starts with a shooting game, the kind where you win a prize if you make a hit. Except, the shooters are all people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate a president. "There are two narrators -- the Balladeer, a folksy, optimistic, and innocent voice of America -- and the Proprietor.
"At first, you think the Proprietor is just the guy that runs the fairgrounds, but he is actually the Satanic force behind the assassins," said Cavalier. "He gets darker and darker, then gets really creepy."
David El'Hatton of Boardman plays the Proprietor, and describes his character as "the "serpent in the Garden of Eden."
"He hangs around putting ideas into peoples' heads, and slipping guns into peoples' hands," El'Hatton said. "He doesn't talk a lot -- he lurks. The underlying theme of the play is that everybody in America has a right to their dream. In the case of these people, their dream is to assassinate a president."
El'Hatton recently impressed audiences at the Youngstown Playhouse in another disturbing play -- "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."
Wealth of lessons
Cavalier makes it clear that the play does not in any way glorify these murderers or condone their acts. "But we now have a viewpoint as to where they were coming from," he said. "They all had a reason to do what they did. It is a look at the seedy underside of America. And it is also a fantastic history lesson -- about 90 percent of the play is based on historic facts. You will feel everything in this play, from creepy chills and fear, to humor, then guilt for laughing, or finding yourself empathizing with the characters. It is such a thought-provoking play."
The cast consists of nine assassins -- who include those who failed their assassination attempt on presidents -- plus six chorus members and the two narrators. It temporarily suspends time and space, because all these characters come together and form a group, a connection, a conspiracy of ghosts.
"Each assassin gets their own little vignette, but ultimately they come together to encourage Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate Kennedy," El'Hatton said. He also pointed out that this fairly short musical has no intermission, so the momentum will not be broken.
Dr. Nanette Solomon of Slippery Rock University is the music director. She was recently onstage at the NCP Annex in "The Vagina Monologues."