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Czolgosz, angry man
I didn't really do any of those things except see Assassins, but seeing Assassins was *extremely* good! It was my first time seeing it with an equity level cast, and wow, the performance was just gorgeous! I want to see it a dozen more times, and cast my attention to a different actor every time to see how they are handling their background role.
The absolute standout was Zangara, who was played by an opera-trained baritone who brought a richness to his ballad I've never really heard before. Too easy for that particular role to be played solely comic, with the accent and the goofiness of the stomach, but I loved hearing that deeper tone. Squeaky was a close second, with an actress who was *mostly* the perfect sixties drifty hippie without a thought in her strung-out head, until suddenly she says something deeply and totally horrifying, usually with a beatific smile and a "Charlie told me!".
Both the proprietor and Booth had devilish tendancies, the one subtle in the background, the other raging and stalking around in the fore. Booth played his role like an evil vizier, and my absolute hats off to the costumer for dressing the man so incredibly fine. Silk brocade trousers? Like, be still my heart. I loved watching Booth and Czologosz exchange background looks every time they had to sing with Guiteau, who absolutely ate the stage every second he was on it as he should.
Speaking of Czolgosz, he managed to fully sell himself as an entirely sympathetic character. Like, I'm a little unhinged and feel fonder than I should for most of these fuckasses, but oh. _oh_. Working man and that says a lot in a world where billionaires fuck up the lives of the rest of us and never even notice what they're doing wrong.
As a staging note, there were no guns onstage until the grand finale --everyone just crooked their hand into the position of holding a gun, and mimed that out. It made it all feel more solid and real to give Oswald his rifle, and then the sense of connection coming through and giving the rest of them life in the final song --he has become real, and so the rest of them can be as well.
Few surprises, but it didn't need them: it was just stunningly performed, well-sung, and in a space small enough to feel utterly intimate. I loved it, and almost want to go again this weekend.
Everybody's got the right to their dreams, after all.
~Sor
MOOP!
The absolute standout was Zangara, who was played by an opera-trained baritone who brought a richness to his ballad I've never really heard before. Too easy for that particular role to be played solely comic, with the accent and the goofiness of the stomach, but I loved hearing that deeper tone. Squeaky was a close second, with an actress who was *mostly* the perfect sixties drifty hippie without a thought in her strung-out head, until suddenly she says something deeply and totally horrifying, usually with a beatific smile and a "Charlie told me!".
Both the proprietor and Booth had devilish tendancies, the one subtle in the background, the other raging and stalking around in the fore. Booth played his role like an evil vizier, and my absolute hats off to the costumer for dressing the man so incredibly fine. Silk brocade trousers? Like, be still my heart. I loved watching Booth and Czologosz exchange background looks every time they had to sing with Guiteau, who absolutely ate the stage every second he was on it as he should.
Speaking of Czolgosz, he managed to fully sell himself as an entirely sympathetic character. Like, I'm a little unhinged and feel fonder than I should for most of these fuckasses, but oh. _oh_. Working man and that says a lot in a world where billionaires fuck up the lives of the rest of us and never even notice what they're doing wrong.
As a staging note, there were no guns onstage until the grand finale --everyone just crooked their hand into the position of holding a gun, and mimed that out. It made it all feel more solid and real to give Oswald his rifle, and then the sense of connection coming through and giving the rest of them life in the final song --he has become real, and so the rest of them can be as well.
Few surprises, but it didn't need them: it was just stunningly performed, well-sung, and in a space small enough to feel utterly intimate. I loved it, and almost want to go again this weekend.
Everybody's got the right to their dreams, after all.
~Sor
MOOP!