Assassins Question

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:24pm

Does anyone know why the attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt was not used in the musical?

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:30pm

I'd guess it's because the assassin wasn't that interesting. He was a nutty nut, but a less fun one than Guiteau, and the only reason he shot Roosevelt was because he was opposed to presidents seeking a third term. It's a thin story, and he would have made a dull character.

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:35pm

It was pretty damn dramatic tho-- Roosevelt was shot in the chest as he arrived to give a speech and his glasses and speech in his pocket slowed the bullet so that it lodged in his chest but didn't kill him. He started out by explaining he'd just been shot, but that it took more than that to kill a Bull Moose and then spoke for 90 minutes.

[KQuill]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:35pm

Um, unless I am missing something...Giuseppe Zangara tried to kill Roosevelt and he was used in the musical. He has his own song...

And Guiteau killed Garfield...

[folkyboy]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:36pm

maybe they were referencing a plotline?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:37pm

KQ, that was FDR not TR.

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:37pm

Isn't there a song called "And That's How I Saved Roosevelt" or something like that?

[Weez]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:38pm

Didn't Zangara try to kill Franklin D., as opposed to Theodore? You had more than one President Roosevelt, remember.

"Or we'd have been left bereft of F.D.R.!" ^_^

Updated On: 2/20/07 at 05:38 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:39pm

Oh yes, you're right.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:42pm

Schrank's claim that he was trying to kill the third term Presidential hopeful and not the citizen Roosevelt is in line with the theme of the play, however. He had nothing against the MAN just the idea of someone being President for three terms. Of course the story of how TR survived is probably more interesting and that would have required someone to play the President.

[KQuill]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 6:54pm

I'm only a first year history major, give me time

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 8:36pm

The assassination attempt itself was exciting, but because of the president, not the assassin. Shrank's motive fit, but his personality and story were dull. He wouldn't fit in the show.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:31pm

I'm sure had Sondheim wanted to include him he could have made it dramatically interesting. It's a good question though.

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:37pm

Why not the dude who tried to kill Andrew Jackson? His gun didn't work, and Jackson beat the crap out of him.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:39pm

I'd NEVER heard that story before, but what a great one! He is one of my top 3 favorite presidents of all time, what a guy.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:39pm

Again, though, what's interesting there is the president and the story of the attempt, not so much the assassin himself.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:43pm

Precisely, the show is about the assassins and the only time a president remotely overshadows the person is Reagan to Hinkley in that one scene, which is intentional because he failed and it becomes a mockery.

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:46pm

I don't know. The Jackson guy is kind of interesting -- even though I can't even think of his name. He went nuts breathing in paint fumes and thought he was the king of England. Kind of like Zangara and Guiteau combined.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 1:56pm

Jackson's would-be assassin was Richard Lawrence. Maybe someday he'll get his own musical.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 2:03pm

But Calvin makes a great point. How is any would be assassin not interesting? By virtue of the fact that they actually attempted it tells me there is a story there. Even if it's just their delusion that any good would come of it.
I suspect Sondheim had other reasons for not including this particular incident.

[Danielm]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 2:08pm

Most likely the collaborators on this show (again, why are we assuming the decision was Sondheim's) looked over all of the various assassinations and attempted assassins and decided which ones they wanted to deal with. They chose the ones they found most interesting or quirky or the ones that fit their theme the best.

[2ndBalcony]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 2:12pm

But the theory of Assassins is that Boothe was the first and sort of "gave permission" for those that followed. Putting an earlier one in would mess up that story point.