One of the would-be assassins portrayed, Samuel Byck, planned to hijack an airplane and fly it into the White House to kill President Richard Nixon. Even now, audiences are conflicted over how to react to the high-spirited show, which is beautifully staged and wonderfully acted yet difficult to applaud. "Not everybody likes it," said O'Hare, who plays Charles Guiteau, a delusional attorney who shot and killed President James Garfield in 1881. "People don't know what to say. People are very confused. They are flummoxed. People are moved and at the same time repelled. They laugh and are horrified in the next breath. They don't know what to think."

The set is framed like a roller coaster, suggesting the ride the audience is taken on while the likes of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr., and Squeaky Fromme explain themselves through song and dance in a carnival-type atmosphere. Big production numbers that would normally elicit cheers are instead punctuated by effects that draw stunned silence--the sound of an electrocution, the thumping drop of a body with a thick rope tied around the neck. "It's an interesting way to short-circuit the audience's expectation or experience," said O'Hare. "Wait a second, think about it. What are you applauding? What do you really think? What really just happened?" O'Hare, winner as Best Featured Actor in a play last year for Take Me Out, is nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Musical, a category that includes cast mate Michael Cerveris, who plays Booth, as well as John Cariani (Fiddler on the Roof), Raul Esparza (Taboo), and Michael McElroy (Big River).

Back to Articles