{"id":236144,"date":"2013-04-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/sondheim-at-cygnet\/"},"modified":"2013-04-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T07:00:00","slug":"sondheim-at-cygnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/sondheim-at-cygnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Sondheim at Cygnet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlene Baldridge | Noticias del Centro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Sondheim is an acquired taste. He is the thinking person\u2019s musical theater composer. It helps if one\u2019s thinking is somewhat bizarre. Sometimes even those who are Sondheim fans are brought up short by the composer\u2019s lesser-known works such as the largely neglected 1990 off-Broadway show, \u201cAssassins,\u201d which is playing at Cygnet\u2019s Theatre in Old Town through April 28. As the nation\u2019s leaders struggle to enact stricter gun control legislation, a more appropriate piece cannot be imagined.<\/p>\n

\"With<\/a>
With guns in the air, (l-r_ Melinda Gilb, Brandon Molinaro, Jason Maddy, Geno Carr of “Assassins.” (Photo by Rich Soublet II)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAssassins\u201d is an acquired taste, too. There is no protagonist, and because all the characters are angry and deranged, and because Sondheim and book writer John Weidman conceived the piece as a carnival sideshow, it is unsettling and in your face. And why not? That is the intent.<\/p>\n

The characters are assassins or would-be assassins and their targets, U.S. presidents. Not all the assassins are remembered. Not all were successful. That is also the point.<\/p>\n

In the show\u2019s final scene Lee Harvey Oswald (Jacob Caltrider, who also portrays the Ballad Singer) must be persuaded to kill Pres. John F. Kennedy because the act will burn the names of all assassins in the public memory. Twisted logic? You bet. That\u2019s Sondheim, too.<\/p>\n

The show gets underway in a gun shop, where the proprietor (Andy Collins, aided by his physical stature and costume designer Shirley Pierson\u2019s creepy Wild West get up) sells firearms.<\/p>\n

Among the purchasers are Leon Czolgosz (Jason Maddy), who shot William McKinley; John Hinckley, Jr. (K\u00fcrt Norby), who attempted to kill Ronald Reagan; John Wilkes Booth (Braxton Molinaro), who assassinated Abraham Lincoln; Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed John F. Kennedy; and Lynette \u201cSqueaky\u201d Fromme (Melissa Fernandes) and Sara Jane Moore (Melinda Gilb), who together separately (17 days apart) sought to kill Gerald Ford. Other killers and would-be killers are Charles Guiteau (Geno Carr), Giuseppe Zangara (Jaycob Hunter) and Samuel Byck (Manny Fernandes). The program notes include the names of still others, mentioned or not by Sondheim and Weidman.<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) Sandy Campbell, Stewart Calhoun, Jason Maddy, Bryan Banville, Mitzi Michaels, and Andy Collins portray some of the \u201cangry and deranged\u201d characters in Cygnet\u2019s \u201cAssassins\u201d (Photo by Rich Soublet II)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also in the company, Sandy Campbell provides a finely drawn Emma Goldman, and bystanders are Bryan Banville, Stewart Calhoun and Mitzi Michaels. Musical numbers include \u201cThe Ballad of Booth,\u201d \u201cHow I Saved Roosevelt,\u201d \u201cUnworthy of Your Love,\u201d \u201cNovember 22, 1963,\u201d and \u201cEverybody\u2019s Got the Right (to be happy).\u201d<\/p>\n

Melinda Gilb and Melissa Fernandes, who are so extraordinary that someone must write them their own musical, provide moments of extreme black comedy. Aside from uniformly excellent articulation of Sondheim\u2019s outrageous lyrics, the production\u2019s major assets are Sean Murray\u2019s clean direction, Ryan Grossheim\u2019s two-level shooting gallery set, Chris Rynne\u2019s lighting and Matt Lescault-Wood\u2019s sound design.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Peter Herman\u2019s wigs and makeup and Pierson\u2019s costumes, the actors become ringers for their historical characters.<\/p>\n

Take your sardonic funny bone. The entire show is a mordant joke. While you\u2019re there, enjoy music director Patrick Marion\u2019s flawless six-member band.<\/p>\n

Just as Cygnet intends to deepen its relationship with August Wilson, the theater company will extend its ongoing reputation for super Sondheim (\u201cA Month in the Country,\u201d \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d). Recently Murray announced that the company\u2019s 11th season opens with \u201cCompany.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAssassins\u201d continues at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 & 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 & 7 p.m. Sundays, through April 28 at Cygnet\u2019s Old Town Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town San Diego, cygnetteatro.com<\/a> o 619-337-1525.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charlene Baldridge moved to San Diego from the Chicago area in 1962. She\u2019s been writing about the arts since 1979, and has had her features, critiques, surveys and interviews included in various publications ever since. She just released a chapbook of poems by her late daughter, called \u201cThe Warrior\u2019s Stance.\u201d She can be reached at charb81@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Charlene Baldridge | Downtown News Stephen Sondheim is an acquired taste. He is the thinking person\u2019s musical theater composer. It helps if one\u2019s thinking is somewhat bizarre. Sometimes even those who are Sondheim fans are brought up short by the composer\u2019s lesser-known works such as the largely neglected 1990 off-Broadway show, \u201cAssassins,\u201d which is playing […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Sondheim at Cygnet","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}