![]() ![]() For these assassins, the American Dream really is as silly as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.Īs the Balladeer spouts his homespun clichés about a country built on dreams, we see how little this means to this group of people consumed by despair, grief, rage, and feelings of abandonment. ![]() Byck compares the fairy tale of the American Dream to Santa Claus, and we realize how meaningless the Balladeer’s empty optimism is to them. But it's also infused with great anger, carried to enough of an extreme to justify their extreme acts. In a way, it becomes the most optimistic song in the show, precisely because the assassins have found the answer. They sell it to us, asking us to pass on their message, singing over and over, “Spread the word.” They know that we (the audience) all have unrealized dreams just like they do they know that we all want the same thing, and they know how to get it now. They’ve found a better American Dream, another national anthem. Led by Byck, they tell us that they’ve tried the traditional American Dream, the one proffered by the Balladeer, and it doesn’t work. The assassins onstage literally solicit the audience to become assassins. Can you tell I don't like it?īut it's “Another National Anthem” that shares the now famous theme with Hamilton, "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story." The other exception is "Something Just Broke," which wasn't in the original version, doesn't follow the rules of the rest of the show, and interrupts the amazing original transition from Oswald's shot through to the finale. It is in “Another National Anthem” that the assassins first reject the Balladeer’s American Dream and realize that there is safety – and power – in numbers. ![]() Appropriately, this is the one song that is not a period piece and not a traditional American song form it is pure Sondheim, full of rich dissonance and interesting melody. The exception to this is “Another National Anthem,” the one song in which the overall dramatic situation of the show actually changes. For Sondheim, those forms include not only folk songs and cakewalks, but also John Philip Sousa marches, barbershop quartets, show tunes, even 1970s pop ballads. ![]() With two exceptions, the entire score is written in styles appropriate to each assassin’s time, and all in traditional American song forms. And with each assassin's song, the musical form matches both the period and the personality of the assassin. On the other team, the Assassins, all presented without judgment, allowed to tell their own stories and make their own cases, in their own voices. Storytelling is central to any culture, but the Balladeer's songs show us how American culture distorts the complexity and nuance of the truth. His music is pure Americana, but his lyrics are shallow, simple-minded. On one team, Balladeer, as a stand-in for American pop culture and entertainment throughout our history, simplifying and misrepresenting the truth. Every moment in the show is about that.Īnd isn't that a metaphor for all our lives? More than anything else, Assassins is about a battle for control of the storytelling. ![]()
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