[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

proprietor proclaim “Free country --!” 385 The whole group sings “Everybody’s/Got the
right/To some sunshine –“ but Booth in the next scene declares his particular motive was
to “kill the man who killed my.” 386 The Confederate sympathizer sings that “How the
Union can never recover/From that vulgar,/High and mightly/Niggerlover” – Abraham
Lincoln. 387
In later scenes, the remaining pre-Oswald assassins -- Guiteau, Czolgosz, Zangara
– and the post-Oswald would-be assassins -- Byck, Fromme, Sara Jane Moore, and John
Hinckley – sing about why they tried to kill a president. Their individual motives vary –
for example, Fromme declares her love for Charles Manson while Hinckley pines for
actress Jodie Foster. They unite, however, in proclaiming that in the United States,
“There’s another national anthem, folks,/For those who never win,/For the suckers, for
the pikers,/For the ones who might have been…” 388
In the penultimate scene, Oswald appears as he works on the sixth floor of the
Texas School Book Depository. He is carrying out menial tasks and is surly when
approached by Booth, who is urging Oswald to seize his chance to make history. At one
point, he snaps at Booth “Fuck you” and later asks whether he is an FBI agent harassing
him. 389 Clearly, this Oswald reflects the Warren Commission view of the angry and
frustrated Oswald. Booth sings of Oswald’s troubled life from a father who “died before
your birth” and his “Crazy mother,” his defection and return, and his troubled marriage to
385 Sondheim and Weidman, 11-12.
386 Sondheim and Weidman, 19.
387 Sondheim and Weidman, 21.
388 Sondheim and Weidman, 85.
389 Sondheim and Weidman, 91.
170