"Hey, pal, feelin' blue?" I leaned pasulong slightly in my upuan as a certain proprietor smiled deviously. The man to whom his message was addressed, a tall fellow with a gray cap, was so close to me I could reach out and touch him. I felt a shudder run down my spine. Already overwhelmed with the powerful theatre I was about to experience, I felt myself being engulfed within the story, becoming a part of it. It was there, in the front row upuan of the Plaza Theater in Boston, that I faced the terrifying yet thrilling Sondheim and Weidman musical Assassins.

Assassins is a fascinating musical that...