By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
When most people consider the macabre work of Stephen Sondheim and his delicious sense of dark humor, they typically point to Sweeney Todd as his greatest achievement. While that may well be for most of his fans, the fact is the tale of the “demon barber of Fleet Street” is a British convention.

Unquestionably, Sondheim’s greatest dark masterwork with an American focus is Assassins, the musical he produced in 1990 at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater, an Off-Broadway venue with just under 200 seats available for each performance.
With a book by John Weidman with whom Sondheim had worked on Pacific Overtures some 15 years earlier, Assassins is about as funny a vehicle as one can imagine when dealing with the very disturbing and shocking topic of presidential assassinations.

Now on the boards at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts, Assassins is being presented in New Orleans for the third time, having previously been done first at the University of New Orleans and in 2008 at the former Teddy’s Corner of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré by The NOLA Project. However, this may well be the most ambitious and satisfying of them all, paying great service to the late composer and lyricist and staying true to the original intent of the work.
In Weidman’s fantastic setting for the work, a gathering of presidential assassins and a few would-be’s assemble in a carnival midway. A Proprietor (Michael John Smith) holds court at a shooting gallery that boldly bears the sign “Shoot the Prez! Win a Prize!” The show begins and ends with a song that might otherwise be seen as a send up of American rights to assembly, free speech and the ability to bear arms. With Smith as The Proprietor starting the jaunty little piece, the assassins soon join in, each given a weapon with which to assert themselves.
The irony not wasted by both Sondheim and Weidman reinforces the fact that the assassins’ rights deprive others of their basic rights to liberty and life.

As the set designed by director Gary Rucker and Benjamin Dougherty is fully revealed and lighted, we see the procession of infamous killers and screw-ups give an account of their reasons and justifications for their horrendous deeds. Each of them has their own story to tell –some tragic and some ridiculous – and set to Sondheim’s remarkable songs. Weidman’s book allows for dialog in which they interact with one another, much like members of a club might do.
But rather than let the killers glorify themselves, Assassins employs the services of The Balladeer (Michael Civitano) to enable each one to account for his or her misdeeds and their eventual demise and to set the historical record straight. As he bellows in “The Ballad of Booth,” “lots of madmen had their way, but only for a day.”
In addition to “The Ballad of Booth,” Civitano’s pleasant voice is assigned the task of leading several other of the assassins’ numbers, especially “The Ballad of Czolgosz” and “The Ballad of Guiteau.” In each of these selections, as well as “How I Saved Roosevelt,” the musical genre popular in that era is emphasized. Thus, “The Ballad of Booth” employs a banjo in a musical homage to the minstrel music heard in antebellum dancehalls and theaters.

The jaunty ballad of Charles J. Guiteau, the crazy killer of James Garfield, is punctuated with a fervent religious hymn based on an actual line of verse composed by the madman prior to his public hanging. Sondheim probably took great pleasure in cobbling real history with that of his own creation.
Leon Czolgosz, who murdered William McKinley at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 has a song that sounds very reminiscent of the music played near the turn of the century leading up to the inception of Ragtime. The fact that McKinley died in The Temple of Music did not escape Sondheim’s attention.
As Booth, Vatican Lokey probably has his best stage role in years. His singing is spot on and his lines are delivered with clarity of purpose. He is a truly charismatic figure who acts as de facto leader of the others, his politics notwithstanding.
Ryan Nocito makes for a joyful and delightfully crazed Charles J. Guiteau, a man who believed he would become the next Ambassador to France and a best-selling author, neither of which came true. Mitchell Samuel Kogan is a brooding figure who is featured especially well in “Gun Song,” which recounts all the labor, industry and technology that goes into fashioning a pistol.
Ty Robbins plays Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian who suffered from an upset stomach, a bad disposition and was a bad shot. He managed to kill Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak rather than his intended target, President-Elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Candice Moses as Sarah Jane Moore and Lauren Smith as Charles Manson disciple Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme share several hysterical scenes together. Both are excellent comediennes.
Smith’s duet with Nathaniel Richard as John Hinckley, Jr. (President Reagan’s assailant) – “Unworthy of Your Love” – is possibly one of Sondheim’s most lovely ballads and oddest of pairings.
All of the assassins team up for the final scene in the bitter pill “Another National Anthem” where they gripe, grumble and groan that life and fortune had passed them all by. “Sure, the mailman won the lottery,” Samuel Byck bemoans.
Byck, played by David Hoover, is seen in a tattered Santa Claus outfit. He is perfectly cast and an interesting choice for director Rucker. It was Hoover who, after all, brought Assassins to New Orleans for the first time as he was the director of its initial showing at U.N.O. Hoover is wonderful in the role of the curmudgeon, who first sends a tape with suggestions to Leonard Bernstein about improving West Side Story, a backhanded reference to Sondheim himself as he wrote those lyrics. All of this leads up to his tape intended for President Richard Nixon, which alludes to his failed attempt to send a small aircraft into the White House.
Joel Rainey serves as dramaturg on the work and is also a member of the ensemble seen most prominently in “How I Saved Roosevelt.” In addition to portraying The Propietor, Michael John Smith, a former longtime Marine and musician, serves as weapons master for each one of the guns used in the work. The excellent costumes are by Kelsey Brehm and the wigs are by Amanda Cavalier.
The lighting design by Camille Griffin is top notch as is the sound design by Kage Laney. Great musical direction is handed in by Jennifer Delatte, too. Kudos to Belle Tudor for her terrific choreography, too.
All in all, Assassins is a sure-fire hit (puns intended). Congratulations to everyone at Rivertown, especially producers Kelly and Marc Fouchi and Gary Rucker for giving Stephen Sondheim a bit of additional notoriety in his heavenly abode for this show. It is certainly one of his best shows. But, even with its adroitly handled book and biting, satiric lyrics, its repulsive and controversial subject matter makes this show undeservedly one of his least performed works.
Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” (90 minutes with no intermission) continues at the Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts main stage, 325 Minor Street in Kenner, LA. through November 5. Tickets are available here or by calling 504-461-9475.