![REVIEW: Assassins on the Chichester Pageant Theatre REVIEW: Assassins on the Chichester Pageant Theatre](https://bunnythump.com/wp-content/uploads/https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5c3_zxZ6LT-2C81caD5jeLOoPM51VsblKzWv-y5AzAfu56Y_vSm5xLAoQRb0vEJEx4FMTn64s1f7bA_tgCjJbqFrBXAGzABSHv7R3h93sOFxeqMpYaYomP2pr2JsYTuxOB5Q7f0bqfguLF0oi6cnH73ZQbyfKD4CaTDdM3NJMszkWxFhIh_AQ3QNCNqM/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/A-scene-from-Assassins-at-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-Photo-by-Johan-Persson_20382_ae8dbf7978ab62bab5f5a98a83055efc.jpeg)
[ad_1]
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5c3_zxZ6LT-2C81caD5jeLOoPM51VsblKzWv-y5AzAfu56Y_vSm5xLAoQRb0vEJEx4FMTn64s1f7bA_tgCjJbqFrBXAGzABSHv7R3h93sOFxeqMpYaYomP2pr2JsYTuxOB5Q7f0bqfguLF0oi6cnH73ZQbyfKD4CaTDdM3NJMszkWxFhIh_AQ3QNCNqM/s16000/A-scene-from-Assassins-at-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-Photo-by-Johan-Persson_20382_ae8dbf7978ab62bab5f5a98a83055efc.jpeg)
The Chichester Pageant Theatre manufacturing of Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical is outwardly the primary skilled staging of the present for the reason that composer’s demise and is mounted simply as American candidates are saying their intention to run for President in 2024. Director Polly Findlay and designer Lizzie Clachan draw on this, setting of their restaging at a 2023 Nationwide Conference rally and within the White Home Oval Workplace. The Trump like arrival of the Proprietor (Peter Forbes) and the massive screens of 24-hour information protection from CNN and Fox makes a really apparent parallel to the historic tales. Nevertheless, one thing is misplaced within the trendy, large-scale, I’d say, overblown, method in comparison with the joyous intimacy of my earlier two viewings of this title on the 200-seat Watermill in Newbury and a 50-seat studio beginner model. The intimacy of these settings and staging as supposed as a Twentieth-century showman’s fairground attraction is totally misplaced on this grand scale and too usually lonely 1 or 2 figures centre stage fail to have the identical impression on us.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3LjeZyfJU1CISqQwaKLj-6o-Vk02-lbvi6gg-cjz3u_P14UPgpIGbOP-WaTGTztdYumpIZdHTS_Dkmpub2OkldMe5DFZxb6elnLjfO0HXfFo4EWOrG5ZsMLHkq8Fuu8Tt5yQ78Frko56hHfNmH5Hl3lDdrKJe_C1q0lWlm6mV5rZA3zkFxHtFUIlgqY/s320/Amy-Booth-Steel-as-Moore-Carly-Mercedes-Dyer-as-Fromme-in-Assassins-at-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-Photo-by-Johan-Persson_23084_c_11ec03d70aef211706d4daa383e137c6.jpeg)
The again tales of the 4 would-be assassins observe. The 1975 failed makes an attempt on Gerald Ford by Lynette Frome (Carly Mercedes Dyer) and Sarah Jane Moore (Amy Sales space-Metal), the demented Santa Claus Samuel Byck (Nick Holder) who threatened Nixon in 1974 and the deluded John Hinckley (Jack Swallow) whose try on Reagan in 1981 appeared designed to impress the actress, Jodie Foster. By the point Charles Guiteau (Harry Hepple) is hung for the homicide of Garfield in 1881 in a grotesque music and dance up the gallows step it’s all beginning to really feel a bit tedious.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oFJVzN3FDvxNXnNdUeGMnK0FXqzlRt_wYj3qXtXReA8JMJF-JUVUQpZmBUnA_SqZuB-QvYZTBl2zZTJ_vkA6mXSrPxQBjJQrREUxYLau5R4cDVg4Vb3Y0Z9hvpUtwe11UPB0vzOvCBXXaEQrMXJzyZtvGxL_AQ_zvPpafiZqmLJWi6gZ-RKHUz9bOco/s320/Danny-Mac-as-John-Wilkes-Booth-in-Assassins-at-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-Photo-by-Johan-Persson_21226_ae8dbf7978ab62bab5f5a98a83055efc.jpeg)
It’s framed as a musical revue, however the comedic parts appear suppressed on this staging and the formidable abilities of Carly Mercedes Dyer and Lizzie Connelly are fairly wasted of their roles. The citation from Demise of a Salesman that “consideration should be paid” as a justification for his or her actions is fairly overwhelming by the overproduced staging. It is a musical that may have been higher within the Minerva Theatre the place we may “listen” to the insanity of their eyes and the music fairly than the multimedia razzamatazz of the trendy setting.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtQiokNvXLA0UeZTPA8-X1OcoJiXL_sfpWu0q94CcgcXcqvEXGlNJL6E-YebmMVr8Fddol0EslEc2zLe6N51JCYvN5ALyj2IVT7NkypjHl2XS2ksGmMeP1HbE56velxv5ebeV-yfwu-dTBT5iTk9MvR4xl7usIV9WGTvvE4wgwajc-NknynqvOTYgX-4/s320/Jack-Shalloo-as-Hinckley-Peter-Forbes-The-Proprietor-in-Assassins-at-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-Photo-by-Johan-Persson_25109_ae8dbf7978ab62bab5f5a98a83055efc.jpeg)
Assessment by Nick Wayne
Ranking: ★★
Seat: Stalls, Row O | Value of Ticket: £70
[ad_2]