Mad, bad and dangerous

Kyle Cheun playing the infamous assassin Giuseppe Zangar. Photo / The Aucklander.

The director of Sondheim's musical Assassins says his actors needed to have a little bit of 'crazy'.

More than 200 people auditioned over a period of five months to be part of Silo Theatre's killer ensemble in the musical Assassins. The antithesis of all-American apple pie, Assassins delves into the unstable minds of nine people - seven men and two women - who have tried, some successfully, to kill various United States presidents.

Written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, its murderous characters meet in a funhouse shooting gallery to discuss their motivations - be it capturing the headlines, getting the girl or a desire, as they see it, to make the world a better place.

Rather than a drab history lesson with events unfolding in chronological order, the subversive show jumps around in time and space to explore the dark side of modernity.

Director Oliver Driver says he was not prepared to compromise on the cast.

He says Sondheim's music is tricky to sing but he wanted actors who could sing - rather than singers who could act - because it is theatrically demanding with a mix of drama and black humour.

"Every person I cast had to be perfect for the role and I wasn't prepared to sacrifice that."

He says it helped for them to have a little bit of "crazy" because the characters are not regular Janets and Johns happily going about life in the land of the free and the brave.

Unable to find a local actor with the necessary combination of skills - and crazy - to play John Wilkes Booth (the American actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln in 1865), Driver looked to the Australian cast of the adult comedy musical Avenue Q.

The cast were in Auckland on the final stop in a 14-month tour of the production and starting to think about future projects when auditions for Assassins were on. Driver says he wanted to hire Australian actor Mitchell Butel on the spot. "He walked in and he was John Wilkes Booth."

Butel says he is excited about working with a New Zealand company on a musical which "enchants you while it punches you in the head".

He joins a cast which includes Silo Theatre regulars Cameron Rhodes, Andrew Grainger and Roy Snow with newcomers Kyle Chuen, Cameron Douglas, Natalie Medlock, Gareth Williams and Go Girls' Bronwyn Bradley.

Williams, who played a murderous husband in The Dentist's Chair, is Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot John F. Kennedy in 1963. With a mesmerising singing voice, he also plays the balladeer who acts as a kind of narrator, providing the macabre details of each crime.

He says that despite their disparate backgrounds, the assassins - with the possible exception of John Wilkes Booth - tended to be poorly educated and living on the margins of society.

He was surprised to learn that Lee Harvey Oswald was just 24 and an ex-marine who spent time living in the Soviet Union.

Natalie Medlock plays Charles Manson acolyte Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 and has only recently been released from prison.

Medlock says she can't imagine even contemplating such a crime.

"I think it's fair to say she is very different from me.

"She was taking a lot of drugs and living a surreal no-point-of-reference lifestyle which basically made her quite unhinged."

Rhodes portrays Sam Byck, who wanted to kill Richard Nixon by hijacking a plane and getting the pilots to fly it into the White House in 1974; he had earlier protested in front of the White House wearing a Santa suit.

"It's an eerie echo of what happened with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States some 27 years later," he says.

"The audience might not have sympathy for these individuals but they might kind of be able to understand them. It's interesting for us as New Zealanders to think about the so-called American Dream and consider that only a tiny portion of people will live that dream. If the others don't, does that make them failures?

"Ultimately, Sondheim condemns their actions but his ultimate point is that if you let things fester, if people are not listened to or given a voice, then things can turn very quickly and very badly."

Silo Theatre artistic director Shane Bosher says the musical is perhaps even more relevant than when it premiered in 1991.

"We've experienced the horrors of 9/11 and the United States is now one of the most socially and politically polarised societies in history.

"We've witnessed the power of the American presidency to change the course of life both domestically and for the entire international community."

He describes Assassins as a significant, controversial and dazzling musical.

What: Assassins, by Stephen Sondheim

Where and when: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, July 24-August 14

The nine men and women featured in the Tony award-winning musical Assassins are:

Leon Czolgosz: Assassinated William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, in 1901. Czolgosz was arrested and executed less than two months after he killed the President.

John Hinckley: Attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981 to impress film star Jodie Foster with whom Hinckley was obsessed. He missed Reagan but the President was injured when a bullet ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He remains in a psychiatric hospital but is increasingly allowed out to visit family.

Charles Julius Guiteau: Assassinated President James A. Garfield in 1881. He was arrested and hanged.

Giuseppe Zangara: Assassinated Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in 1933 but it is believed his intended target was President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Zangara was sent to the electric chair later that year.

Samuel Byck: Wanted to kill President Richard Nixon. In 1974, he attempted to hijack a plane at Baltimore-Washington International Airport with plans to crash into the White House and kill Nixon. Byck was wounded by police who stormed the plane before it took off and he shot himself.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme: A devoted follower of crazed serial killer Charles Manson, Fromme pointed a gun at President Gerald Ford in 1975. She was released from prison last year after serving 34 years.

Sara Jane Moore: Just 17 days after Fromme pointed a gun at Ford, Moore also tried to shoot him, missing his head by a few inches. She received a life sentence for the crime but was released in 2007 aged 77.

John Wilkes Booth: A charismatic stage actor from a well-known theatrical family, Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in 1865. He fled the scene and made his way to northern Virginia where soldiers found and killed him. Some believe Booth escaped and died many years later.

Lee Harvey Oswald: The 24-year-old ex-marine and Communist sympathiser who shot President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. After his arrest, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later.

Each of the assassins gets a turn in the spotlight, with the music varied to reflect their respective eras.