‘Assassins’ and the American way

SINCE opening on Broadway in 1990, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s “Assassins” has intrigued audiences with its murderous musical travelogue through American history and song styles, including show tunes, barbershop quartets, the death of Abraham Lincoln, spirituals, two attempts on Gerald Ford’s life, soft rock, John Hinckley, folk -- and a controversial take on our national character.

Almost vaudevillian in its vignette structure and Americana vibe, and sprinkled with much actual historical dialogue -- including trial transcripts and last words from the electric chair -- this musical lives up to its title, weaving together nine villainous presidential killers or would-bes into a thought-provoking, darkly comedic, surprising unglorification of violence, says Richard Israel, the director of its current incarnation -- the West Coast Ensemble’s production opening this weekend at the El Centro Theatre.

“Initially, I thought it would be timely because it’s an election year, but its timeliness has almost nothing to do with that,” he says. “Its actual timeliness was a lovely surprise.”

Rather than viewing “Assassins” as an artifact of any particular era, Israel sees it as touching on key ingredients lurking ominously within our collective apple pie. “It’s about the great dichotomy, the two sides of the American coin. One that’s instilled from birth in all of us is the can-do, every kid can grow up to be president, everyone has the right to be happy mythology,” he says. “The flip side is that’s not always true. It makes a lot of assumptions, such as a level playing field. There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised. There are a lot of people who feel the American dream is a lie.”

And paradoxically, these big themes, Israel says, work best in an intimate venue such as West Coast Ensemble’s 99-seater at the El Centro Theatre. “If done properly, it’s a very small, honest and, therefore, scary show,” Israel says. In close quarters, “we’re all just people in a room . . . it doesn’t have that sheen of ‘it’s a musical.’ ”

“Everyone says this, but we’re a company that wants to make you think a little,” he continues. Attempted Gerald Ford assassin Squeaky Fromme “went to Redondo High, a regular Southern California kid who went a little wrong. ‘Assassins’ gets you asking those questions -- what would it take for me to contemplate such an act?”

“Richard has been saying over and over, we can’t judge these characters, because you can’t play that,” says Shannon Stoeke, playing both the musical’s carnival Proprietor and later its Lee Harvey Oswald. “They all believed what they were doing was important and necessary. We can’t play them googly-eyed crazy.” Instead, when Stoeke stares into that Oswaldian abyss, “I see very downtrodden, I see confused. He was always looking for a home, a sense of belonging.”

“It’s not just a whirlwind of craziness, there’s some truth in there,” adds Dana Reynolds, the production’s Balladeer. Surrounded by characters shooting for economic justice or retribution over a lost way of life, Reynolds feels a little empathy isn’t entirely out of order. “Their choices were handled badly, but they were choices that were in some ways forced upon them, by [society’s] continual marginalizing of misfits.”

But our better angels aren’t entirely absent. “I don’t know if everyone will necessarily leave whistling a happy tune,” Stoeke says. But that’s not the end of it, he believes. “There are horrible acts which make us pause, but America doesn’t stop. There’s a song, ‘Something Broke,’ which comes after Oswald’s scene. It’s about the moment when a president is killed or there’s a break in the American way of life. We’ve all been there, especially after 9/11. But America is the hero of the play.”

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-- Mindy.Farabee@latimes.com

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‘ASSASSINS’

WHERE: El Centro Theatre, 804 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood.

WHEN: Opens 8 p.m. Fri.; runs 8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun.; ends Aug. 31

PRICE: $34

INFO: (323) 460-4443; www.tix.com