The play
Fridge Brilliance
- When Byck is introduced in "Everybody's Got The Right", it's scored with the line "Everybody's got the right to be different". At first, it seems to just be because of his eccentricities (wearing a Santa suit, for one thing), but when you think about it, he's the only assassin to not try to shoot the president; he tries to fly a plane into the White House. He's different from every other assassin.
- Byck is also the only assasssin that The Proprietor doesn’t sing to directly and in some productions already has his own gun when he walks on. Historically-speaking, Byck didn’t try to shoot the president and he stole the gun he used in his hijack attempt, so he wouldn’t need The Proprietor at all.
- In the revival, the Balladeer turning into Lee Harvey Oswald may just seem to be a way to reduce the cast number, but it actually makes a surprising amount of sense:
- All three of the successful assassinations, i.e. the ones the ballads are about, took place BEFORE Oswald's attempt, chronologically.
- When JFK was killed, the Texas Book Depository, where Oswald was, was being used to store old history books. No wonder there was so much detail and accuracy in the songs.
- In "The Ballad of Booth," the Balladeer taunts Booth until he is told to shut up. When Booth confronts Oswald, the roles are reversed.
- There's also a long history of coincidences and urban legends supposedly connecting Booth and Oswald.
- "The Ballad of Booth" contains the line "Johnny Booth was a handsome devil." In addition to being a foppish fancy dresser, Booth acts as a devil-like figure throughout the show, tempting Zangara and Oswald to consider assassination as a solution to their problems.
- Booth suggests that Zangara assassinate Roosevelt to end his stomach pain. This may seem like Insane Troll Logic, but since the crime resulted in Zangara's execution, it did end it.
