Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Directed by Rod Caspers
Music directed by Lyn Koenning
Assassins is based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.
Playwrights Horizons, Inc. – New York City Produced Assassins Off–Broadway in 1990
Assassins is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI, 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 541–4684 Fax: (212) 397–4684
www.MTIShows.com
Performances: April 11, 12, 17, 18, 19 at 8:00 PM
April 13, 19, 20 at 2:00 PM
B. Iden Payne Theatre
Tickets: $16 adults, $13 UT faculty & staff, $10 students available online at www.utpac.org or by phone at 477–6060.
Media and Resources:
- Cast List
- Composer Information
- Author Information
- Director Information
- Synopsis
- Musical Numbers
- Press and Reviews
- Rehearsal Photos
- Costume renderings by Jennifer Madison
- Scene renderings by Sarah Davidson
Synopsis: Thirteen people have tried to kill the President of the United States during our country's brief history. Four of these individuals have succeeded. Using a revue format – with a series of vignettes, sketches and ballads – their stories are explored.
The piece begins at a carnival shooting range where a proprietor provides each assassin with his/her weapon. This proprietor represents our country — our society — in which unfulfilled promises of the American Dream and easy access to handguns makes assassination a viable option of people who feel they've been wronged, and for people who want some attention from our news–hungry media. Ensuing scenes allow audience members a better of understanding of the individual assassins and the motivations behind their acts. The assassins’ individual stories, part fiction and mostly fact, are presented on stage for us to see, and seeing the United States through the stories of its villains, instead of traditional musical theatre heroes, proves an unsettling yet fascinating experience.
In his notes accompanying the original cast recording of Assassins, Andre Bishop writes, "As the assassins sing of their (and everyone's) right to be happy and have their dreams, one has a sense of an America whose extraordinary freedom has created a land where accidents of all kinds can happen. Any kid can grow up to be President; any kid can grow up to be his killer."
Composer & Lyricist: Stephen Sondheim
Born in 1930, Stephen Sondheim is one of the most important composers and lyricists of the contemporary U.S. musical theatre. Throughout his teen and young adult years, Sondheim was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklahoma!, South Pacific), a seminal figure in musical theatre history. After graduating from Williams College, where he won the Hutchinson Prize for Musical Composition, Sondheim briefly composed for television before serving as lyricist for his first Broadway show, West Side Story. He also served as the lyricist on Gypsy and Do I Hear A Waltz. Since then, he has served as composer–lyricist for a wide variety of Broadway musicals, among them A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Merrily We Roll Along, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Passion. He is known for complex, character driven music and lyrics, and for an interest in innovation. Pacific Overtures, for example, blends elements of classical Japanese theatre with the American musical form, while Merrily We Roll Along unfolds in reverse chronological order. Company, with it's non–linear, episodic storytelling, helped pioneer the concept musical form, a form to which Assassins also belongs. Over his career Sondheim has won numerous awards and honors, and in 2002 the Kennedy Center produced six of his musicals as a “Sondheim Celebration.”
The son of Tony Award winning librettist Jerome Weidman (Fiorello!), John Weidman extends his family's musical theatre legacy, most notably through his work with Stephen Sondheim. Their collaborations include Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Bounce, and the duo's current project, Wise Guys. His other major works include revising the libretto for the 1987 revival of Anything Goes (with Timothy Crouse) and Contact, for which he is also penning the screen adaptation. Weidman has also penned the books for two Shire/Maltby Musicals, Big and Take Flight, a new aviation–themed musical that premiered at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in 2007. In addition to his career as a librettist, the three–time Tony nominee and Yale Law School graduate has worked as an elementary school teacher and television writer, winning eleven Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street. He is currently the president of the Dramatists Guild of America.
A graduate of Illinois State University, Rod earned an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. He has taught and directed at the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas. While at U.T. Austin, he also served as the Artistic Director for the Office of University Relations, creating and producing large–scale university events. Rod has conducted directing workshops throughout the country and served as a guest artist/instructor for the Facing History and Ourselves Program in Switzerland and the Czech Republic. While living in New York, Rod served as Associate Director for GreenPlays, creating and directing several new musicals and cabarets. He has directed over seventy productions including The Secret Garden, The Laramie Project, Big River, Merrily We Roll Along, Tintypes, Working, Lies and Legends, Shirley Valentine, Once on This Island, In the Heart of America, Fiddler On the Roof, Close Ties, Carousel, The Rivers and Ravines, Really Rosie and Ordinary People. Rod produced and directed the UT Texas Performing Arts' 20th Anniversary Gala starring Tommy Tune, Linda Eder and The Broadway Tenors as well as the We're Texas Milestone Celebration with Judy Collins. Rod stage managed the Rockettes’ Radio City Christmas Spectacular for four years with his colleague, Chan Chandler. Currently he serves as the Director of Special Services for The University of Texas System. Recently he served as supervisory producer of the Lone Star EMMY award–winning public television series State of Tomorrow.
- Glen Murchison Hall as Proprietor
- Qadir Khan as Leon Czolgosz
- Neil Ames as John Hinckley
- Zachary Ullah as Charles Guiteau
- Matrex Kilgore as Giuseppe Zangara
- Julian E. Castillo as Samuel Byck
- Whitney Zangarine as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme
- Julia Lornez as Sara Jane Moore
- Christopher Skillern as John Wilkes Booth
- Lizzi Biggers as Balladeer
- Eric Ferguson as Balladeer
- Claire Morris as Balladder
- Robert Andrew Segovia as Lee Harvey Oswald/Photographer
- Richmond Dewan as Young Boy
- Jena Maenius as Emma Goldman/Ensemble
Ensemble/Bystanders:
- Emilio Banda
- Stevi Baston
- Jeremy Dozier
- Leslie Horne
- Kristen Nelson
Orchestra:
- Lyn Koenning – Piano/Conductor
- Sarah Lincoln – Reeds
- Mike Piccione – Trumpet
- Curt Berry – Trombone
- Ryan Beavers – Guitar/Banjo
- Pat Farris – Bass
- Dave Bowen – Drums
- Opening – Proprietor, Assassins
- The Ballad of Booth – Balladeers, Booth
- How I Saved Roosevelt – Ensemble, Zangara
- Gun Song – Czolgosz, Booth, Guiteau, Moore
- The Ballad of Czolgosz – Balladeers, Czolgosz, Ensemble
- Unworthy of Your Love – Hinckely, Fromme
- The Ballad of Guiteau – Balladeers, Guiteau, Ensemble
- Another National Anthem – Assassins, Balladeers, Proprietor
- Something Just Broke – Ensemble
- Everybody's Got the Right (Finale) – Assassins
