Eagle Theatre's 'Assassins': On target for our time, leaving the beholder shaken

Some shows preserve their particular time and place as in perfect, stagecrafted amber. Others - such as Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, currently airing its dirty laundry at Hammonton, N.J.'s tiny Eagle Theatre - seem to gain new facets with age, reflecting the current cultural landscape whenever they're revived.

So it is that while Hamilton's American forefathers just up the turnpike aren't giving away their shot, the better to build a nation, on the other coast, the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupiers attempt to tear it down. And in between, maybe right now, someone somewhere in America sits before a computer screen, cradling a gun and crafting a manifesto explaining why he's about to do a terrible thing. As the murderers and attempted murderers of several presidents sing in Assassins: "Everybody's got the right to some sunshine / Not the sun, but maybe one of its beams."

Director Ted Wioncek III takes much of his inspiration from the show's 2004 Broadway revival, from the rows of globe lightbulbs to the nod to Mario Cantone in David Yashin's raspy-voiced Nixon stalker Samuel Byck to the Zapruder film projected on a white T-shirt worn by Balladeer (Adam Hoyak).

This powerful cast, led by Jeffrey Coon's always-glowering John Wilkes Booth, blazes through the production. Some of that power may derive from overzealous miking in this small space, which, combined with the volume of a six-piece orchestra, occasionally rattles the seats, and serves Coon's baritone better than it does some of the higher pitches, such as those of Hoyak and Tim Rinehart as Proprietor.

That intimacy also works to confront the audience and amplify Sondheim's pitch-black lyrics. Samantha Morrone's crazy-eyed Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and Victoria Healy's polyester-pants-suited mom-gone-wild Sara Jane Moore (remember when they failed to kill Gerald Ford?) provide much of the show's comedy, every laugh with a guilty aftertaste. They also pick up the pace, which slacks during other dialogues and monologues. During these scenes, Wioncek allows the actors to grab their own moment in the sun. That works thematically, but at its most indulgent, such as during Byck's wild drive to Washington, it loses tension.

Still, it's something of a shock to walk into the unassuming Eagle and walk out shaken. It's kind of like a theater version of John Hinckley (played here by Will Connell, slump-shouldered, with hanging head and averted eyes) - doesn't look like much, but once you get inside, you can hardly believe everything going on in there.

Assassins

At the Eagle Theatre, 208 Vine St., Hammonton, N.J. Through Feb. 21.

Tickets: $20-$40.

Information: 609-704-5012 or www.theeagletheatre.com

Wendy_Rosenfield@yahoo.com

@WendyRosenfield

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