Assassins

If you have read my about me, or even the title you should know that I am an actress and am currently going to school to study Theatre at UND. This week UND put on a musical called Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Wideman, and not only did I want to go see it, I had for two of my classes. Now that I have seen it, I get to write two papers on it that are due on Monday, congratulations to me right? But, I also wanted to share my review of the play for you guys. Not to mention, it is definitely going to add a lighter note to my blog, so here we go.

On November 17, 2011 I went and saw the musical Assassins as shown in Burtness Theatre by the University of North Dakota’s Theatre Department. I honestly thought the show was amazing. The entire feel of the show together really, it just felt right, it’s hard to explain, but it was great.

The acting was fantastic, everyone was very well cast. I did really like Hyrum Patterson’s character; he seemed too really get into which was nice to see. As well as Tyler Rood and Abby Schoenborn, I thought it was great how both their characters seemed crazy (well, it was most noticeable in these characters) but they didn’t hesitate about it. They just went for whatever the character called for which I thought was spectacular. Daniel Dutot was cast perfectly as John Wilkes Booth; I seriously could see the resemblance, which although creepy, was really effective and awesome. Chris Hunt, Brian Dempcy and Casey Paradies all did a great job really showing their characters as well, I kind of felt empathy for these assassins. Rachel Perry is where I find my one off actor. Although I think she is a fantastic actress and she too really went for the character, I really was bothered by her singing. She does have a great voice, but her facial and vocal expression never seemed to match what was going on around her. It really just through off the character and made it a little less believable, but none the less, she did get into her character really well.

I thoroughly enjoyed Philip Muehe in his portrayal of the Balladeer. I’m not entirely sure what it was about him, just his voice and the way he performed the Ballads of Booth, Czolyosz and Guiteau was just fantastic and really enjoyable to watch. I also really enjoyed him switching roles to become Lee Harvey Oswald. I really enjoyed his overall performance.

The ensemble and Proprietor all did great jobs as well. The ensemble helped add a little more humor to the show which I thought was really enjoyable so it was nice to have them involved as well.

I thought the set was awesome, it was so simple but yet so effective. I really liked how it had a bunch of different levels for the actors to be on. Occasionally I did find, especially when the assassins were all lined up next to each other, it seemed a little awkward when they were all trying to step the same but they were all on different levels so it seemed a little awkward, but I still found it really effective.

I really loved the music that was written for the show by Sondheim. I have to say that the Ballads of Booth and Guiteau were probably my favorite songs, I really enjoy Philip’s voice and I just think that’s both those songs were really well written and just fantastically played and danced by Philip, Daniel and Tyler performed those songs so well. I was thoroughly impressed.

I did think that Unworthy of Your Love was an excellently written song, but like I said earlier, I was unimpressed with Rachel Perry’s ability to sing and act at the same time. Another National Anthem was another great song! I thought that all the assassins, Balladeer and Proprietor performed the song great and I though just the entire feel of the song came across right.

The costumes and make-up really made the characters. It added an entirely new feel to every character and it all really completed each character. I loved all every piece of costuming seemed to fit the character great and the actors really seemed to own what they were wearing. I especially liked Hyrum’s Santa costume; I thought it really added a lot to the character of Sam Byck. The entire costuming of the show was well done.

The lighting was really effective as whole for the entire show. I really enjoyed how the lighting set the mood. Although I did find that occasionally I did find that what seemed like the spotlights were a little off and you could see them being adjusted which was a little distracting at times, but for the most part it was too noticeable, I only really saw it in a couple of spots. Other than that the lighting plot was really effective at setting the atmosphere for most of the songs. I really enjoyed the way that when the assassins were all lined up at the end, how the light was on all their faces from the lights at the front. I thought that was really cool and it added kind of a creepy sense to it all. I especially enjoyed Tyler Rood’s facial expressions, oh my god, those were absolutely fantastic!

The overall musical was extremely well put together. Everything seemed to set this sort of atmosphere that really makes you think about these characters and not only their impact on their own world, but their impact on the world of today as well. The University of North Dakota’s production of Assassins was absolutely fantastic.

I want everyone to note that I originally wrote this post as my paper for my Intro to Theatre class. I hope you guys enjoy my review and once again, have a fantastic day!

-Crysta