Welcome to a new Musical Theatre Monday! This month, alongside my coverage of How I Met Your Mother, I’m paying tribute to musical comedy man Neil Patrick Harris by spotlighting one of his Broadway triumphs — the 2004 production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s provocative Assassins, which officially debuted off-Broadway in 1990.
Assassins is a concept musical about several of the people who killed or tried to kill American presidents, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley. As a concept musical, its plot is not exactly linear and the songs don’t merely exist within the action (like in a traditional book musical). Instead, the music comments on the overarching themes or motifs of the play. But it’s not a revue you see — for there is a dramatic idea being explored. Sondheim, of course, was famous for experimenting with form in this way, in shows like Company (1970) and Follies (1971), inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first flop Allegro (1947), on which Sondheim had worked in sort of a gopher capacity. In Assassins’ first official Broadway mounting, future How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris played the Balladeer, the singing narrator of this off-beat and unusually structured musical. In celebration of him, I’m sharing — with subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, non-commercial interest — access to an audio of that 2004 production. Here’s an excerpt — Harris singing part of “The Ballad Of Booth.”
Additionally, I’m also offering an audio from the 1989 Workshop production that also featured a handful of future sitcom stars — including Nathan Lane as Samuel Byck, Michael Jeter as Giuseppe Zangara, Christine Baranski as Squeaky Fromme, and Swoosie Kurtz as Sara Jane Moore. From that recording, here’s “Everybody’s Got The Right.”
And lastly, I’ve got an untracked audio from a 2023 production at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia that boasted Monica Horan — Amy from Everybody Loves Raymond — as Sara Jane Moore. Hear her here in “Gun Song.” Enjoy — and bang!
Come back next month for another musical treat! And stay tuned tomorrow for more Mother!