105 - Assassins
Added 2023-09-21 08:00:03 +0000 UTCThe lads grab their Iver-Johnson .32s and make their way to the head of the line as they cover Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s 1990 murderous musical: Assassins. Topics include the show’s initial negative reception, the inevitable critical reappraisal, and the dissonant, violent chords lurking just beneath the promise of the American Dream.
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Media Referenced in this Episode:
- Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman
- Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording
- 2004 Broadway Revival Recording
- 2022 Off-Broadway Revival Recording
- The 2009 Korean Cast
- The 2013 Swedish Cast
- Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany by Stephen Sondheim.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “The Ballad of Sam Bultch”-Music by Stephen Sondheim, Lyrics by Dr. Samuel Bultch, D.D.S. Featuring David Armstrong as “Horny Fairgoer/Stephen Sondheim” and Eleanor Philips as “Gossipy Fairgoer”.
Comments
What rhymes with Thomas Mathew Crooks? I’m working on something.
steph
2025-01-09 20:19:04 +0000 UTCPulled a full Gerald Ford. An icon. A legend
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-10-12 01:30:35 +0000 UTCenjoying your archive, it's back baby trump did it he brought the presidential assassin back
Maggie+Al
2024-10-12 00:25:58 +0000 UTCNow I know where that Allen Wake bit came from
Yura
2023-09-27 17:13:57 +0000 UTCWhen Josh brought up the idea of the balladeer being the liberal ego's interpretation of President McKinley's assassination, I raised a question in my mind: is today's re-imagining of Neo-liberalism in a semi-post Trump political landscape the manifestation of America's liberal ego death?
Megan Owens
2023-09-25 19:14:02 +0000 UTCI'm so happy you guys decided to cover this. My mom actually took me to a community theater production of this show 5 years ago today, so I have fond memories of seeing this show.
Sharon Horwatt
2023-09-23 14:54:38 +0000 UTCHonk! The musical when?!
James Cézanne-Taipale
2023-09-23 06:24:10 +0000 UTCPop Tarts aren't really tarts. They're more of a strudel. With an expansive enough definition, one could classify hot pockets as ravioli
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2023-09-23 00:50:36 +0000 UTCI have so many vital musical theater questions. For example. Are hot pockets tarts?!!?
Samuel E McConnell
2023-09-22 21:01:50 +0000 UTCI'm a fan of musical theater but a total rube, love learning about fascinating works like this through this pod. Pairs very nicely with holding a 2 day old!
im so daddy i havent slept in a year
2023-09-22 10:09:56 +0000 UTCCan confirm I immediately googled "scones recipe" and was baffled to find out it not only included sugar and vanilla extract, but wasn't ~40% sour milk by weight, which is the only type of scone I've ever known. I give this revelation 3 angry börks out of 5. Which isn't actually a word, but fun to play into
Elaine Åhlfeldt
2023-09-22 09:53:55 +0000 UTCI hope that if you werent already, that THIS is the episode that puts TWOAPW on a government list.
TalkGibberish
2023-09-22 02:33:32 +0000 UTCAss! Ass! In!
murt pie
2023-09-21 23:48:43 +0000 UTCSince I may never have a more topical opportunity, I'd like to share my favorite song about the Kennedy assassination: "Visitors From Indiana," by the tragically-underrated Eric Taylor (RIP). https://youtu.be/CE4GlqiOS1g?si=wBeOLlWLRKAxU2vt
Kyle Cassidy
2023-09-21 22:57:53 +0000 UTCAn interesting comparison to this is the Manson family opera which is another musical about the cultural impact of an American tragedy
Zipzapzop
2023-09-21 20:28:30 +0000 UTCGotta have a creed.
T Trewhella
2023-09-21 17:15:40 +0000 UTCAss assin'
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2023-09-21 16:46:00 +0000 UTClater addition of Something Just Broke is a rare misstep from the Sond-man
Kyle Cassidy
2023-09-21 16:36:15 +0000 UTCthe 1990 recording is the one that burned into my "high school discovering Sondheim" brain, so going to the 2004 recording to refamiliarize myself with Something Just Broke, it's just very jarring to hear what feels like something out of the score of Passion interrupting the middle of a ludicrously powerful closing sequence. "I was out in the yard" just sounds like "he doesn't have a title but he does have a wife" to me.
Addison Stumpf
2023-09-21 15:52:47 +0000 UTCHell yeah. Maybe Sondheim's most prescient work--except now you rarely bother to shoot celebrities, just as many people as possible. The Assassins succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and were supplanted by the fruits of their success, thrown over by an infinite procession of infamy-seeking mass shooters.
Kyle Cassidy
2023-09-21 12:28:42 +0000 UTCHeh. "Ass"
T Trewhella
2023-09-21 09:47:37 +0000 UTC
