From the 42nd Street chorus girl who needs to “come back a star” to the lion cub who becomes King of the Jungle, the Broadway musical has always embraced the American aspiration to fame and fortune. Which makes Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins so diabolically brilliant. With musical portraits of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and other successful and unsuccessful presidential assassins, Sondheim knits American Dream and Tragedy into a potent package and another potentially winning musical.
Assassins (Sept. 4-Oct. 7). Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Quadracci Powerhouse Theater. 108 E. Wells St., 414-224-9490, milwaukeerep.com.
