Track Listing

1. Everybody's Got the Right - Greg Germann, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terry Mann, William Parry, Lee Wilkof
2. Ballad of Booth - Patrick Cassidy, Victor Garber, Marcus Olson
3. How I Saved Roosevelt - Joe Franz, Lyn Greene, John Jellison, Eddie Korbich, Marcus Olson, William Parry
4. Gun Song/Ballad of Czolgosz - Patrick Cassidy, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Terry Mann, Debra Monk
5. Unworthy of Your Love - Greg Germann, Annie Golden
6. Ballad of Guiteau - Patrick Cassidy, Jonathan Hadary
7. Another National Anthem - Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terry Mann
8. November 22, 1963 - Jace Alexander, Jason Alexander, Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Jonathan Hadary, Terry Mann, Lee Wilkof
9. Final Sequence: You Can Close the New York Stock Exchange/Everybody's - Victor Garber, Annie Golden, Jonathan Hadary, Korb, Eddie Korbich, Terry Mann, Debra Monk, Lee Wilkof

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39084 in Music
• Released on: 1991-08-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
Leave it to Stephen Sondheim to make things difficult for himself. After writing his most accessible mature musical, Into the Woods, in 1987, he collaborated with author John Weidman on an extremely disturbing topic: Assassins, which depicts the various people who tried--with or without success--to kill a United States president. The characters, ranging from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley Jr., all express different motivations--love, fame, freedom from tyranny, stomach pain--but are united in their frustration with the idea of the American dream and believe that killing a president is the only way to achieve it. The songs the assassins sing cover a similarly wide range of Americana, including numbers in the style of Stephen Foster and Sousa, and as is common with Sondheim's music, many of the songs could pass for enjoyable casual listening out of context. (Best example: the lovely ballad "Unworthy of Your Love" could have been a hit for the Carpenters, but it's sung by Hinckley to Jodie Foster and by Lynne "Squeaky" Fromme to Charles Manson.) Careful attention, however, reveals a work of penetrating power. In addition to the musical numbers, this original cast recording includes an 11-minute nonmusical scene in which the older assassins confront and goad Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas School Book Depository as JFK's car approaches. Not surprisingly, the original 1991 production of Assassins ran only 73 performances and the show didn't make it to Broadway until 2004. The booklet includes production photos and full lyrics. --David Horiuchi