Silver Spring Stage, a theater known for pushing boundaries and experimenting with new forms, will present its first musical in nearly three decades.
The production, Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, directed by Fred Zirm, will run weekends from June 7-23. The cast includes Lee Michele Rosenthal, who played in the Stage’s last musical, Weird Romance, in 1997.
“It’s about time they started to do musicals again!” she exclaimed.
Founded in 1968 and incorporated in 1970, Silver Spring Stage prides itself on exploring unconventional themes and styles. Zirm, directing at the Stage for the third time, explained, “Although musicals are a staple for many other community theaters, doing a musical is experimental and new for the Stage.”
Assassins, which first opened off-Broadway in 1990 and won the Tony Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical in 2004, delves into the motives and inner demons of individuals who assassinated or attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents. The show explores the lives of well-known figures like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as lesser-known assassins like Leon Czolgosz, who killed William McKinley, and Charles Guiteau, who assassinated James Garfield. It also examines failed attempts, such as those by Sara Jane Moore and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who both tried to kill Gerald Ford, and Sam Byck, who planned to crash a plane into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon.
“The show both humanizes and demonizes the assassins,” Zirm said. “It lets us see their hopes and fears, and maybe even understand why they did what they did.”
Some cast members have personal connections to the events portrayed in the musical. Maureen Freshour, who plays the Balladeer, vividly remembers November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. “It was the first day I saw my mother cry. I was six years old and home from school, and my mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner and listening to the radio. I don’t remember the announcement, but I heard sniffling and then sobbing. My mother, a good Catholic American, had a particular affinity for John Kennedy. That crying from the kitchen will forever be connected to that event for me, how an instant can shake the country so dramatically and it was truly like everything changed at that moment.”
Bill Bodie, who plays Byck, recalled, “Like John Hinckley, I was a big fan of Taxi Driver. I remember the Oscars were on the same day as the Reagan shooting. Robert DeNiro, who just won for Best Actor in Raging Bull, had to spend the entire press conference afterward answering questions about Reagan, Jodie Foster, and Taxi Driver.”
Zirm acknowledged the show’s relevance in today’s polarized climate, stating, “Unfortunately, Assassins has become more relevant during such polarized times when more and more people look toward violence as a solution to our problems. It’s not. Do not think eliminating any one political figure will solve our country’s problems. Happiness is not a warm gun.”
Silver Spring Stage is located at 10145 Colesville Road in Four Corners. Tickets for Assassins can be purchased on the Silver Spring Stage website for $23.25 to $26.25 (fees included).