Assassins not only begins with the song “Everybody’s Got the Right,” but freeFall’s production characterizes with its title how everything about murderers and attempted murderers’ motives make sense in a clear context. Their story takes place in a carnival whose theme is a meeting to help each other get off what’s on their minds. To mainly balladic music, the protagonists aim (and that’s the operative word) to pull off the stunt of making fame via killings in a festive marketplace. Though the musical is not new, it’s current with its “Gun Song” and seeking stardom and crowd pleasing and claiming motives of care for people and of love. This, even though Squeaky Fromme, for instance, claims to Charles Manson she’s “UnWorthy of Your Love.” But John Wilkes Booth views Lincoln as a tyrant who must be eradicated for the preservation of the country. There’s even a boast about “How I Saved Roosevelt” to counteract FDR’s would be killer--and killer sales of a book. The musical covers eight attempts to off the President of the United States. Who are these predators? Despite their different excuses, all seek to squash their feelings of powerlessness, of insignificance, of inability to reach aspirations, of lack of recognition. What better way to combat these than to bring down the highest person in their country? Incompetency that figures in most of the assassination attempts is satirized, especially in the cases of Booth’s thinking he’ll be applauded, Fromme acting like a juvenile, or Sara Jane Moore hugging a basket of KFC. Lee Harvey Oswald has to be shown the rifle he can use and how to make a connection to the passing of JFK’s car. The funniest scene has Gerald Ford tripping and falling in front of his would-be killer and nicely returning her dropped purse and bullets that fell out of it. Production values soar throughout. Balloons to be burst for gunfire sounds fill a board on the side of the entrance door and lead to another door that opens like the mouth of a patriotic big cat with shining eyes. On the ceiling are strings of various lights along with spots that help change time and atmosphere. The main audience sits on two sides flanking, near the entrance, a center with an extended wide picnic table that performers hop on like a thrust stage with a close-up audience seated on picnic benches as if at a carnival feast. A balladeer moves with the action as much as do the words he sings. Lyrics are an extension of dialogue. A stairway leads up the opposite wall with a platform for some action, including a hanging. When lowered, the stairs create playing space leading to the picnic set-up and around it. On the walls are pictures of the concerned presidents. Red, white, and blue dominate in all common areas. Costumes perfectly vary by period, textures, and colors. Once again, at freeFall, the lighting design and execution make the setting come alive. The under-platform musicians do Sondheim proud. Miracle of miracles in this age of the over-mic, all of the singers project their voices well and without distracting wired-up faces. Kudos to director Eric Davis for his expert coordination, not only of the uniformly fine performances, but also of the many elements that make freeFall’s carnival of Assassins a hit.
