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105 - Assassins (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-21 08:00:03
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

The 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.

Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!

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”.

Files

Comments

Kyle Cassidy

Hell 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.

Addison Stumpf

the 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.

Kyle Cassidy

later addition of Something Just Broke is a rare misstep from the Sond-man

Zipzapzop

An interesting comparison to this is the Manson family opera which is another musical about the cultural impact of an American tragedy

TalkGibberish

I hope that if you werent already, that THIS is the episode that puts TWOAPW on a government list.

Elaine Åhlfeldt

Can 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

No one said you have to live on Bob.

I'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!

Samuel E McConnell

I have so many vital musical theater questions. For example. Are hot pockets tarts?!!?

The Worst of All Possible Worlds

Pop Tarts aren't really tarts. They're more of a strudel. With an expansive enough definition, one could classify hot pockets as ravioli

Sharon Horwatt

I'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.

Megan Owens

When 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?

Autumn Cedar

Now I know where that Allen Wake bit came from

Maggie+Al

enjoying your archive, it's back baby trump did it he brought the presidential assassin back

Laur

Lowkey its ride the cyclone for president killers

Ash

This episode is the whole reason I subscribed to your Patreon and it might have driven me a little insane because I listened to it three times in a 24 hour period while traveling and got sick the next day. I had a lot of fun though, and the songs are great :)

NowhereMan661

The funny thing about Guiteau not achieving his dream of being remembered is that he has actually kind of been remembered, through all the retellings of his absurd life and actions, through this play, through a Sam O'nella video with 20 million views, and even now through a Netflix miniseries. He was remembered all right, just not for the reasons he expected.

NowhereMan661

Coming back to this episode for no reason in particular.