Recordings

Assassins » Original Off-Broadway Cast

Show Details

Show: Assassins (4)
Music: Stephen Sondheim (280)
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim (280)
Book: John Weidman (9)

Recording Details

Date: 1990
Type: Audio / Stage Cast
Language: English
Location: US / NY / New York
Orchestrations: Michael Starobin (51)
Conductor: Paul Gemignani (82)
Music Director: Paul Gemignani (82)
Producer: Jay David Saks (54)
Liner Notes: Jonathan Schwartz (10)
Performer: Jace Alexander, Patrick Cassidy (12), Joy Franz (9), Victor Garber (19), Greg Germann (2), Annie Golden (25), Lyn Greene (2), Jonathan Hadary (10), John Jellison (17), Eddie Korbich (24), Terrence Mann (15), Debra Monk (13), Marcus Olson (4), William Parry (16), Lee Wilkof (19)
Added by: hitormiss

Recording Releases

Buy MP3 Album (or listen to Sound Clips)

Format: CD
Label: RCA Victor 60737-2-RC
Released: 1991-08-13
Barcode: 090266073726
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Length: 56:37
Added by: Deester
Tracks: 1. Everybody's Got The Right
2. The Ballad Of Booth
3. How I Saved Roosevelt
4. Gun Song/The Ballad Of Czolgosz
5. Unworthy Of Your Love
6. Ballad Of Guiteau
7. Another National Anthem
8. November 22, 1963
9. Final Sequence: 'You Can Close The New York Stock Exchange.' Everybody's Got The Right

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Discussion

Posted 2007-08-05 20:52:48:
Amazon.com Editoral Review: Leave it to Stephen Sondheim to make things difficult for himself. After writing his most accessible mature musical, Into the Woods, in 1987, he collaborated with author John Weidman on an extremely disturbing topic: Assassins, which depicts the various people who tried--with or without success--to kill a United States president. The characters, ranging from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley Jr., all express different motivations--love, fame, freedom from tyranny, stomach pain--but are united in their frustration with the idea of the American dream and believe that killing a president is the only way to achieve it. The songs the assassins sing cover a similarly wide range of Americana, including numbers in the style of Stephen Foster and Sousa, and as is common with Sondheim's music, many of the songs could pass for enjoyable casual listening out of context. (Best example: the lovely ballad "Unworthy of Your Love" could have been a hit for the Carpenters, but it's sung by Hinckley to Jodie Foster and by Lynne "Squeaky" Fromme to Charles Manson.) Careful attention, however, reveals a work of penetrating power. In addition to the musical numbers, this original cast recording includes an 11-minute nonmusical scene in which the older assassins confront and goad Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas School Book Depository as JFK's car approaches. Not surprisingly, the original 1991 production of Assassins ran only 73 performances and the show didn't make it to Broadway until 2004. The booklet includes production photos and full lyrics. --David Horiuchi

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