I hadn’t planned on seeing a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins one day after an attempted assassination on former President Trump. Five days ago, I was jazzed about my plan to see and write about one of my favorite shows brought to life by one of my favorite theater companies.
The play—Assassins, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman—chronicles every attempted and actual assassination of U.S. presidents. The characters are a proprietor/narrator, a balladeer/narrator and the nine assassins. While this seems like the most unfunny subject matter ever, the play offers hilarious moments thanks to Sondheim, who penned beloved favorites Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd, among many others.
No local theater embraces the work of Sondheim like the San Jose Playhouse, and this production did not disappoint even though opening night was delayed one day in the wake of the assassination attempt.
“Regardless of what happened yesterday, doing this show in this political climate is a risk,” said Shannon Guggenheim, video and graphic design director, referring to the circling storms of polarization, division and violence. Guggenheim, who is also a partner in this family-run theater, thanked audience members who came back the next day after the sold-out July 13 performance was canceled.
“Our family, our business and the production itself is not designed to condone political violence in any way; it is simply to show us how we get here, and how the person yesterday got where he did.” She expressed hope that audiences will choose to experience this work “within this news cycle” and invited those of us present to stay in the onsite cafe after the show to eat gelato, meet one another and “have some dialogue. Even discourse, but there’s gelato, so it’ll be okay,” Shannon joked. The loosening crowd tittered away some nerves.
That’s when I knew I was in the right place. And after it was over, I actually felt better and realized I had been therapeutically entertained.
“I just really trust Stephen Sondheim to be bitingly funny and really smart,” said audience member and local filmmaker Tricia Creason-Valencia, who had never seen this show and wasn’t expecting life to imitate art the day before. She’d wondered how we’d process this event as a nation and realized that while she believes the incident won’t lead to true dialogue, coming to the theater to see a piece like this “is more effective” at getting to the heart of the issue, “because it’s nuanced.”
The multiple viewpoints contained in the nine characters with very different motivations from one another—from a skewed patriotism to mental illness—created a composite that deepened understanding of how a person can fall down that path and created empathy for the characters, said Creason-Valencia.
Even without the shooting the day before, the show is relevant. Sondheim’s wit is at its apex. The play shows us how the consumptive shadow of the American Dream and its evil twin American Exceptionalism fuel resentment and rage. We feel the pathos, the loneliness, the lust for validation and fame experienced by these characters. While intense, there are moments that manage to be truly funny without turning the characters into caricatures.
The set, the costumes, the direction, the acting and the vocals were powerfully on point.
The company poured their heart, souls and every ounce of talent and conviction into a stunning performance that left our audience spellbound. We had fathomed the unfathomable and had A Moment. And then we went to the lobby and processed it with the cast.
This is the magic of live theater at its best: understanding, catharsis and connection, with popcorn-flavor gelato.
San Jose Playhouse, pummeled by current economics and declining theater crowds, is struggling to stay open. “Attendance at all of our programs are down,” Guggenheim said. “We are waiting for you all to emerge from your Netflix and chilling and to come back to this place of theater.”
Psychoanalysis teaches us that in order to process deep feelings and tumultuous events, we need a container. An idea from alchemy, it’s a sealed-off space where it is safe to witness, feel, be seen and speak. Theater can be that container, provided by San Jose Playhouse and several more beautiful-yet-struggling companies.
If I were only able to see one local show this year, I would not hesitate to make it this production of Assassins.
Come for the show, stay for the therapy, and support local theater.
Assassins, the Musical plays Thu-Sat at 7:30pm through Aug. 4 at 3Below Theaters, 288 S Second St, San Jose. Tickets are $25-$65. 3belowtheaters.com.
