By Robert Simonson Theatre history is riddled with examples of bad timing. Cole Porter's 1934 musical comedy Anything Goes — set on a transatlantic luxury liner — was originally to have focused on a shipwreck, but that plot was scrapped when the S.S. Morro Castle burned off the coast of New Jersey, killing more than 130. In 1941, a new play called The Admiral Had a Wife, a comedy set at a naval base in Hawaii, was set to open on Broadway. On Dec. 7. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the play was withdrawn.
Perhaps no show has suffered from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that Stephen Sondheim's edgy musical Assassins. A show built around discontents that took shots at American Presidents, the material was provocative to begin with. Still, during December 1990 and January 1991, when the orignal production debuted at Playwrights Horizons, there were hopes it would transfer to Broadway. Then, on Jan. 17, 1991, America launched Operation Desert Storm to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, in the first Gulf War. With American soldiers fighting overseas, and patriotism in full bloom at home, a musical about John Wilkes Booth and company seemed out of tune. Broadway plans were scrapped.
A decade later, in 2001, the time seemed ripe for a revival. The Roundabout Theatre Company announced it would produce the show at the Booth Theatre, with an opening set for Nov. 29. Joe Mantello was set to direct. Then came Sept. 11, and two planes flew into the World Trade Center towers. Another hit the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Again, the time was not right for a show in which would-be Nixon assassin Samuel Byck talked about flying a plane into the White House. Two days later, the Roundabout cancelled its plans to stage the musical.
Assassins finally got its day in the Broadway sun in March 2004, at Studio 54. The production was praised and won five Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Some thought the production had legs and that it might get extended into the fall. It so happened that the Republican National Convention was planned for August 2004 in Manhattan, which might have presented another conflict with current events: Would Assassins, 20 blocks from the convention, be in good taste? As it turned out, Roundabout's production closed July 18 at the end of its scheduled limited run.
23 Jun 2010
James Barbour and Becky Ann Baker in Assassins
photo by Joan Marcus
"The show was definitely affected by what was in the headlines," said Shirley Herz, who was the press agent on the show. "I remember the day Rock Hudson died and the TV cameras were outside the theatre interviewing people as they came out. At that point, there wasn't the awareness and understanding. People thought they could catch it over the footlights."
The production ran for four years and 1,761 performances, closing on Nov. 15, 1987. But Herz believes it could have run for quite a while longer.
As for Avenue Q, Lopez says the current changes in the script will remain permanent, and the he does not expect the show to suffer. But, with Coleman gone, will the show now have to be set in the past? "That's a good question," said Lopez.
(Robert Simonson is Playbill.com's senior correspondent. He joined the website in 1998, was its editor from 1999 to 2006, and writes the weekly column Theatre Week in Review. His most recent book, "The Gentleman Press Agent," was released by Applause Books in May. Contact him at rsimonson@playbill.com.)
