City Center Encores! presents ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman - New York City Article

Stephen Sondheim wrote one show about cannibalism (Sweeney Todd) and another that climaxes in the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Pacific Overtures). Yet his most disturbing work is easily Assassins, a bone-chilling look into the souls of those who tried to kill a United States President. Set in a revue format, rather than a conventional narrative, this innovative work is only rarely staged - and it’s not hard to see why. This much anticipated production stars Shuler Hensley (who was so effective in the recent Encores productions of The Most Happy Fella and Fiorello!) and Steven Pasquale (well known from TV’s Rescue Me but also one of the best baritones on the contemporary Broadway scene). That John Weidman’s book and Mr. Sondheim’s words and music sometimes make the likes of John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald seem something like sympathetic only makes the work even more unsettling. Assassins is no less moving today than it was when first staged in 1990, and It’s hard to imagine a political era when this work isn’t both extremely relevant and unrelentingly controversial. Not exactly musical comedy, but absolutely riveting theater.