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trodding the boards

by Brian Sands E-mail: bsnola2@hotmail.com

Assassins at Le Petit’sMuriel’s Cabaret Theatre

The NOLA Project’s recentproduction of Assassins wasnot for those who like their

musicals neatly wrapped with a happyending. For everyone else, however, itwas an opportunity to see StephenSondheim’s award winner in a produc-tion that is unlikely to be surpassedhere in our lifetime.

An off-Broadway flop in 1991, As-sassins returned in 2004 to connectwith critics if not necessarily with themasses. As it explores the psychesand motivations of actual and would-bekillers of American presidents, thisground-breaking musical demonstratesa hideous corruption of America’s can-do spirit, the flip side of Oklahoma’soptimism. Given its local premiere onthe eve of another presidential election,Assassins remains relevant, the instantfame that accrued to its dramatis per-sonae non gratae upon firing a history-altering shot being a distant relative toSarah Palin’s overnight celebrity uponbecoming the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee.

I’ll admit that I liked, but didn’t love,Assassins when I first saw Roundabout’sversion a few days after it won 5 TonyAwards; it was not always easy tofigure out who was killing whom andwhy, and it was a bit of a challenge tofollow Sondheim’s deliciously intricatelyrics. Four years and countlesslistenings to the original cast recordinglater, I’m a fan.

Even so, I was not fully prepared forDirector AJ Allegra’s pitch-perfect pro-duction which found a way to makeJohn Weidman’s interesting, though

disjointed, script work. If one missesthe bells and whistles of Joe Mantello’sBroadway interpretation, Allegra’s lessbusy approach allowed for greater clar-ity while still finding humor in this griz-zly subject. And unlike the emotionally-distancing vastness of Studio 54, Allegraused the in-your-face intimacy of Muriel’sCabaret Theatre to white knuckle ef-fect.

In one of the most outstandingensembles ever to be seen on a NewOrleans stage, two performances stoodout. Richard Alexander Pomes un-leashed volcanic depths of fury as SamByck who had planned to crash a hi-jacked plane into Nixon’s White House.Though least similar in appearance to“his” assassin, Pomes nailed Byck’sgrandiose bitterness.

And Lisa Picone’s Sara Jane Moorewas the finest characterization I’ve yetseen of hers and a personal triumph forthis courageous breast cancer survivoras she returned to trodding the boardsafter an annus interruptus. Picone foundthe hair thin line between the comicallydesperate and the dramatically crazysides of this dowdy would-be killer ofGerald Ford, and walked it expertlyfrom start to finish.

In addition, Jimmy Murphy madean intense John Wilkes Booth who trulybelieved he was doing the best thing forhis country by killing Lincoln; RickyGraham captured Charlie Guiteau’seccentricities while giving depth toGarfield’s killer; Gary Rucker was un-assuming yet pointed as the Balladeerand didn’t overplay it as Lee HarveyOswald; and Vatican Lokey was suit-ably demonic as the Proprietor, using alighter, and hence more effective, touch

than he employed in Miss Saigon.Newcomers Sam Dudley (Leon

Czolgosz), Lauren Elens (Lynette“Squeaky” Fromme) and Alex MartinezWallace (Giuseppe Zangara) all heldtheir own with the veterans on stage.Elens seemed a bit too tough as Frommebut she made up for it in a fine Unworthyof Your Love duet with Matthew Mickal,unrecognizable as John Hinckley.

Tara Brewer, Paul Broussard, Wil-liam Bryant, Andrew Farrier, Kate Kuen,Angela Papale, and young Aaron Richertexcellently completed the cast.

>From the superb Opening on-wards, Musical Director Jefferson Turnerdid a brilliant job with this difficult score.Under Scott Sauber’s ominously candy-colored lights, Cecile Covert filled EliGrove & Kyle Herbert’s simple but ef-fective set with period appropriate out-fits for each assassin.

I’m writing this a week before Elec-tion Day. If by the time you’re readingthis, Barack Obama has been electedPresident, as seems likely tho by nomeans definite, let’s hope certain pre-dictions prove false and there’ll be noneed to add another character to anyfuture productions of Assassins. Onlytime will tell.

The Arabian Nights atTulane’s Lupin Theater

After seeing The ArabianNights recently, I gave asilent prayer: O Allah, per-

mit Lorenzo Gonzalez many happy yearsof directing plays so that his time onearth is so well-filled that he shall neveragain have the time to act in any.

I’ll say no more about his lamen-table forays into Shakespearean actingearlier this season (his Ali Hakim inSummer Lyric’s Oklahoma was slightlybetter), but on the basis of The ArabianNights and last year’s The WeddingDress, I am already looking forward towhatever directorial assignment he takeson next.

The Arabian Nights is a compen-dium of the tales that originated hun-dreds of years ago in India, Persia,Egypt and other Arab lands said to be

told by Scheherezade to delay her ex-ecution by Shahryar. (She succeededindefinitely.) Mary Zimmerman rear-ranged and rewrote them, and this ver-sion was first produced in Chicago in1992.

Scheherezade’s brilliant imagina-tion, or whomever’s it was who came upwith these tales, encompasses a pan-orama of human emotions and situa-tions. We’re given genies, kings, thieves,slave girls, sheiks, princesses, andcaliphs sprinkled among tales of knowl-edge, loss, honor, dishonor, calumny,fortunes found and lovers lost. At times,it’s reminiscent of the complexity of anEscher drawing with stories within sto-ries that lead onto other stories.

Gonzalez used the Lupin’s smallspace to its fullest extent, found thescript’s humor without overdoing it and,overall, did a beautiful job of directingwith a light hand and imaginativeflourishes. The group of belly dancers,choreographed by Stephanie Herring,was a nice touch.

Zimmerman challenges actors byusing language that is in league withShakespeare’s; the Tulanecast generally mastered this althoughsome accents seemed a bit jarringlyout of place.

Arabian Nights’ Story Theater-ishnature encourages a innocent childlikeapproach to the material. If some in theyoung cast were not as polished asothers in this presentational style ofacting, every single ensemble memberconveyed an emotional aptness as rightas the sun’s glow or the greenness ofgrass. As the show progressed, theactors eased into their characters andseemed more comfortable quick-chang-ing between broad comedy (e.g., fartjokes) and the most intimate of humanfeelings.

Giving the most assured perfor-mances were Samuel Repshas andSusan Lanigan in multiple roles, andEleanor Bernstein, luminous asScheherezade. Though the entire restof the cast displayed lots of potential,

[continued on Main-16]The cast of Assassins

Eleanor Bernstein, Kirk Bush and Jessica Greenberg in The Arabian Nights

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