[NEohioPAL] Reviews are in for "Assassins" at Western Reserve Playhouse and we still have 5 shows left

[Western Reserve Playhouse]

*Have you gotten your tickets yet? "Assassins" by Stephen Sondheim is
running till November 9, 2020 at Western Reserve Playhouse? *

*Friday and Saturdays 8PM and Sunday November 3, 2019 at 2PM! *

*Get your tickets at www.westernreserveplayhouse.org
<http://www.westernreserveplayhouse.org> - $17.00 for adults and $15.00 for
Students and Seniors *

*WRP is located at 3326 Everett Road, Bath, Ohio 44286*

*‘First-rate cast’ featured in WRP’s ‘Assassins’*
*By David Ritchey*

*BATH — “All you have to do is move your finger and change the world.” This
lyric is repeated several times in “Assassins,” which is playing at Western
Reserve Playhouse (WRP) through Nov. 9.Stephen Sondheim (music) and John
Weidman (book) wrote “Assassins,” which opened off Broadway in 1990 and,
finally, on Broadway in 2004, where the show ran for 101 performances and
received five Tony Awards.*

*The WRP production is the first production of “Assassins” in our area and
is a great opportunity to see a show that is new to us.*

*Basically, the story is about a number of villains in American history.
These are the people who killed or attempted to kill presidents. The
playwrights have not romanticized these characters or attempted to make
them something they are not.*

*“Assassins” runs about 90 minutes, without an intermission. The production
is divided into several episodes, exploring the motivation of each
character.*

*Early in the show each character is given a pistol, which he/she carries
to the curtain call.*

*And, believe it or not, the show has some humor (designed to lessen the
pain of the murders).*

*“Assassins” takes place in a carnival, a warped circus. The characters are
dressed in appropriate clothing for the time they lived. So, the clothing
provides a visual contrast.*

*John Wilkes Booth (Jason Leupold), of course, shoots President Abraham
Lincoln. Leupold has a strong voice and makes the assassination of Lincoln
all the more frightening because of his vocal abilities.*

*Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Olivia Petrey) joined Charles Manson’s “family”
in 1967. She attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975
and was sentenced to life in prison. She was released in 2009. She was not
charged in the murders involving Sharon Tate or Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
Petrey sings well and brings much physical action to the production.*

*Samuel Byck (Patrick Dukeman) attempted to assassinate President Richard
Nixon, which resulted in his own death. Before the assassination attempt,
he had protested dressed as Santa Claus in front of the White House in
1973. Dukeman is at the top of his acting powers as this mentally ill
assassin.*

*Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Hunsicker) assassinated President John F.
Kennedy in 1963. In the play, Oswald takes his time attempting to get the
nerve to fire the deadly shot. Hunsicker does an excellent job working
through his mental state to finally kill.*

*The play contains several more assassinations and attempted
assassinations. Director Dawn Sniadak-Yamokoski recruited a first-rate cast
— not all are mentioned here. Because of her background in music, she
deserves credit for directing the actors to sing well and carry the story
forward.*

*For this production, the cast is accompanied by two pianos, played by
Bryan Bird and Dave Stebbins. They do an excellent job supporting the
singers and never drowning them out.*

*The set is a single panel with 11 portraits of presidents featured in the
play. Artist Noah Hrbek has given the portraits to the theater and they
will be sold at the end of the run of the play. If you are interested in
one or more of the paintings, call the theater.*

*The program for this production contains several long quotations from the
playwrights. Sondheim said, “Nobody at the end of the show should feel that
we have been excusing or sentimentalizing. We’re examining the system that
causes these horrors.”*

*Weidman added, “We live in a country whose most cherished national myths …
encourage us to believe that in America our dreams not only can come true,
but should come true, and if they don’t someone or something is to blame.”*

*“Assassins” is a strong play and not to be missed. Most of my readers have
not seen this play. I urge you to see it before closing night. Watch a play
about people who moved a finger and changed the course of the world.*

*For tickets, call 330-620-7314 or visit westernreserveplayhouse.org
<https://westernreserveplayhouse.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d832b51f834bd60366dd6c4f9&id=f8cf4f1abf&e=bb516312e9>.*

 *David Ritchey has a Ph.D. in communications and is a professor emeritus
of communications at The University of Akron. He is a member of the
American Theatre Critics Association and the Cleveland Critics Circle.*


*CLEVE REVIEW: 'Assassins' Aims to Evoke Emotions With Rousing, Riveting
Revival of 'Assassins'
<https://westernreserveplayhouse.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d832b51f834bd60366dd6c4f9&id=aadae81e88&e=bb516312e9>*

 *Long before a movie made audiences reconsider and even sympathize with
Batman's psychotic arch enemy the Joker, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman
conceived a musical which humanized a handful of people throughout history
who each achieved infamy by plotting to kill a U.S. President.
Assassinsdebuted off-Broadway in 1990, and in 2004 ended up winning five
Tony Awards. *

*Western Reserve Playhouse is currently presenting a rousing, riveting
revival of the show. The production is so polished and the performances so
powerful that viewers may find themselves unexpectedly moved by the
embittered backstories of these troubled, misguided souls.*

*Director Dawn Sniadak-Yamokoski pours her heart and soul into Assassins,
diligently delineating each character and building intensity throughout the
intermission-less piece. She is aided immensely by musical directors Bryan
Bird and Dave Stebbins, who prove to be a dynamic duo not only in preparing
the musical sequences but performing onstage during the show behind dueling
pianos.  *

*Every member of the eclectic, electric ensemble contributes in a mighty
way to the mesmerizing show. The cast features Adam Harris, Kyle Burnett,
Jasen Leupold, Chris Bizub, John Peters, Kimberly Sullivan, Olivia Petrey,
Jacob Gaspar, Derrick Winger, Patrick Dukeman, Daniel Hunsicker, Braelin
Andrzejewski, Patrick Hanlon, Andrew Yamokoski, Jack Stulak, Ben Arrington,
Steven Schuerger, and Emily Shipley. They really bring their alter egos to
life with bold physical, vocal and emotional choices.*

*The technical team turns the intimate WRP space into a colorfully
compelling carnival. Set design by Dawn Sniadak-Yamokoski, scenic painting
by Noah Hrbek, costumes by Kelsey Tomlinson, lighting by Kevin Rutan, props
by Sue Snyder, and sound/set construction by Justin Herman with barn wood
frames by The Funky Squirrel all come together to develop a hypnotic hold
on playgoers.*
*‘Assassins’ disturbs at Western Reserve Playhouse*

*I can’t say I enjoyed seeing Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins”
Saturday night at Western Reserve Playhouse. Not that we’re meant to,
considering it’s an exercise in darkness, exploring the motivations of nine
people who assassinated or tried to assassinate the presidents of the
United States, from Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan. The characters are
mostly angry white men but include a few women, too.*

*The musical opened Off Broadway in 1990 and on Broadway in 2004, where it
won five Tony Awards. I’ve never seen it produced in Northeast Ohio in the
last 20-plus years, considering it’s probably one of the most controversial
musicals ever written.*

*At Western Reserve Playhouse, artistic director Dawn Sniadak-Yamokoski
directs this disturbing show, a male-dominated story that starts out with
the lurid Proprietor character (Kyle Burnett) singing a warped tune about
the American Dream called “Everybody’s Got the Right.” The Proprietor is
dressed as a sort of circus master who presides over a sick fairground
shooting gallery where assassins or would-be assassins from throughout
history meet and are armed with guns.*

*It’s a nightmarish situation that brings together “pioneer” Lincoln
assassin John Wilkes Booth (a scary Jason Leupold) as well as Garfield
assassin Charles Guiteau (Derrick Winger), McKinley assassin Leon Czolgosz
(Chris Bizub), attempted Franklin D. Roosevelt assassin Giuseppe Zangara
(John Peters), Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Hunsicker),
attempted Nixon assassin Samuel Byck (Patrick Dukeman), attempted Reagan
assassin John Hinckley Jr. (Jacob Gaspar) and attempted Ford assassins
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Olivia Petrey) and Sara Jane Moore (Kimberly
Sullivan).*

*The director, explaining the show choice in her program notes, says “In my
lifetime I have never witnessed a discourse so volatile surrounding the
role of the president of the United States. No matter where you stand
politically, the anger, hatred and violence surrounding this presidency is
unlike anything I’ve witnessed.”*

*That’s what makes this show doubly disturbing, in today’s gun violence
epidemic: that historic assassins on stage egg the others on in order to
express their own anger. Hearing gun shot sound effects repeatedly in this
show is also nasty, as it’s meant to be.*

*The show, in highlighting these assassins’ insanity and heinous acts,
clearly doesn’t glorify violence. Providing some comic relief is Olivia
Petrey as the idiotic Fromme, a Charles Manson follower; and Dukeman,
dressed in a Santa Claus suit as Byck, in his two deranged comic
monologues.*

*The acting is sharp and the singing is strong but it’s still hard to
stomach the material in this show.*

*Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527
or kclawson at thebeaconjournal.com <kclawson at thebeaconjournal.com>. Follow
her at @KerryClawsonABJ
<https://westernreserveplayhouse.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d832b51f834bd60366dd6c4f9&id=5bd8aabd05&e=bb516312e9>or
www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj
<https://westernreserveplayhouse.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d832b51f834bd60366dd6c4f9&id=4da1d27b1f&e=bb516312e9>*
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