Assassins
by Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman
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Description
"Evoking a fraternity of presidential assassins and would-be assassins across a hundred years of our history (including John Wilkes Booth, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, John Hinckley and Lee Harvey Oswald), Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman examine success, failure and the questionable drive for power and celebrity in American society."--Publisher's description.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This darkly comic musical about the people who killed or attempted to kill Presidents of the United States is a masterpiece about the dark realities of the American Dream. This edition of the script does not include "Something Just Broke," a song added later which many productions justly omit.
Very Interesting. The first song makes you think it is being glorified, but in truth it is just being explored from their POV. Not really in a sympathetic way, but in an honest way.
Truly a masterpiece of theatrical storytelling.
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3,299 works; 126 members
Author Information
306+ Works 7,066 Members
Stephen Sondheim was born in New York and studied music at Williams College, where he wrote the lyrics and music for two college shows. Sondheim also studied at Princeton University with Milton Babbit. He received recognition for writing lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957) and success as a lyricist-composer with A Funny Thing show more Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). However, his next musical, Anyone Can Whistle (1964), was unsuccessful. The production of Company (1970) again established Sondheim as a major composer and lyricist on Broadway. Sondheim's other productions include Follies (1971); A Little Night Music (1973), wherein its leading song, "Send in the Clowns," was awarded a Grammy in 1976; and Sunday in the Park with George (1983), a musical inspired by George Seurat's famous painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." He has won him three Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Best Musical Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
12+ Works 498 Members
Work Relationships
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1993
- People/Characters
- John Wilkes Booth; Samuel Byck; Leon Czolgosz; Gerald Ford; Squeaky Fromme; Emma Goldman (show all 13); Charles Guiteau; John Hinckley, Jr.; Sara Jane Moore; Lee Harvey Oswald; Giuseppe Zangara; James G. Blaine; James Abram Garfield
- Important events
- Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Assassination of James A. Garfield; Assassination of William McKinley; Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- First words
- "Hey, pal--feelin' blue?
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Everybody's got the right to their dreams...
- Disambiguation notice
- libretto
Classifications
- Genre
- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 782.140268 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal Music, Singing Operas and related dramatic vocal forms; concert versions Musicals modified standard subdivisions Miscellany; texts; treatises on music scores and recordings Texts, treatises on music scores and recordings Librettos, lyrics
- LCC
- ML50 .S705 .A7 — Music Literature on music Literature on music Librettos. Texts. Scenarios
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 283
- Popularity
- 113,844
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.18)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
