Top Five Songs: Assassins

One of Sondheim’s oddest shows, this score blends his usual style with an interesting swirl of vintage Americana.  The 2004 Broadway recording is the first Sondheim CD I ever owned, and that alone makes it special for me (throw in the fact that it introduced me to Michael Cerveris, and I’m pretty darn indebted.)  Here’s my Top Five for Assassins

“Everybody’s Got the Right” – The opening number brings the assassins together through the framing device of a limbo-y carnival midway.  The shadowy proprietor lures each of them to the “Shoot a Prez!  Win a Prize!” game, promising them everything they want if they play.  It sets up the dark theme of the assassins’ brutal acts as their own twisted attempt at the American dream.

Best line:  “Everybody’s got to right / To some sunshine - /Not the sun, / But maybe one / Of its beams.”

“The Ballad of Booth” – The first ballad number is, for my money, the best.  I really like the interaction between John Wilkes Booth and the Balladeer, as Booth gets increasingly agitated at the Balladeer’s history-text-approved version of his story and ultimately demands that his side is told.  Fascinating and emotional, but still with nice points of dark humor.

Best line:  “How could you do it, Johnny, / Calling it a cause? / You left a legacy / Of butchery / And treason we / Took eagerly, / And thought you’d get applause.”

“The Ballad of Czolgosz” – One wouldn’t have thought a song about killing a president could be so fun and bouncy, but here we are.  The Balladeer’s chipper, buoyant manner as he relates the facts are at tonally discordant odds with Leon Czolgosz’s solemnity, which gives the whole thing a bizarrely comedic air.

Best line:  “Some men have everything / And some have none - /That’s by design. / The idea wasn’t mine alone, / But mine.”

“Unworthy of Your Love” – Every musical needs a love song, and Assassins has this twisted lovely-but-horrific number.  In it, John Hinckley Jr. and Squeaky Fromme address their absent obsessions (Jodie Foster and Charles Manson,) vowing to prove themselves at any cost.

Best line:  “I am nothing, / You are wind and evil and God, / Charlie, / Take my blood and my body / For your love.”

“Something Just Broke” – This song is something of an anomaly within the show.  Entirely sincere, it takes a break from the darkly ironic proceedings to look, not at the assassins themselves, but at the national fallout of their actions.  The ensemble beautifully, tenderly reacts to the deaths of the assorted presidents and wonders how life can go back to normal after this.

Best line:  “Something just broke. / Something just made a little dent. / Something just broke - / Only for a moment. / Something got bent. / Something just left a little mark. / Something just went a little dark. / Something just went.”