Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, about famous killers and would-be killers (like John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinkley, Squeaky Fromme) of famous people (like Lincoln, Kennedy, Sharon Tate), with songs by Sondheim and book by John Weidman, is a piece of expressionist theater that occasionally works as vibrant musical drama, but often sinks into inane verbiage. Lyrics and melodies, as ever, are Sondheim-clever, but the combination of Weidman's protracted wordiness by some of the miscast actors (one, a good singer whose accent is incomprehensible, another who moves well but can't sing) gives us the mixed-up mess of an interesting idea.
Although a lot of the show is muddled, a couple of two-person scenes work quite well and will grab you: Becky Ann Baker as Sara Jane Moore and Mary Catherine Garrison as Squeaky, and Garrison with Alexander Gemignani as Hinkley. Elsewhere, Neil Patrick Harris is an appealing singer, and the magnetic presence of the powerful singing-and- acting star Mark Kudisch is basically wasted in a minor role. The worst scene to me is a lot of horseshit about past assassins convincing Oswald to shoot Kennedy. All in all, this "Madness of Stephen S.", although well designed by Robert Brill (set), Susan Hilferry (costumes) and Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (lighting), is an experiment in contrariness that, with the uneven casting and direction by Joe Mantello, doesn't work as expensive Broadway theater.
