Stephen Sondheim's 'Assassins’ Presented at Utah State University

Award-winning musical “Assassins” opens at Utah State University and is presented by the Department of Theatre Arts through the Caine School of the Arts. “Assassins” opens Feb. 10 and performances continue through Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Lyric Theatre (28 W. Center, Logan).

Tickets are $13 for the public and free to USU students and are available by calling the Caine School of the Arts Box Office at (435) 797-8022 or visiting the box office online.

 

Assassins features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and is based on a book by John Weidman. The musical premiered off Broadway in 1990 and had a successful revival on Broadway in 2004, winning the Tony Award for best revival. The show features profiles of nine presidential assassins or would-be assassins, including John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and Samuel Byck. The assassins live in an ambiguous world in which the bizarre motivations behind their acts are explored. Booth serves as their leader, encouraging them that “everybody’s got the right to their dreams.” The unique musical is strongly rooted in fact and provides numerous education opportunities.

 

Assassins is part vaudeville extravaganza and part exposé. Hugely resonant in today’s celebrity obsessed society, the story is peopled with desperate characters intent on making their indelible mark.

 

“Assassins is now considered to be one of Stephen Sondheim’s most original, disturbing and exquisitely scored shows and has a reputation among many as America’s single most significant contribution to world theater,” said Kevin Doyle, director and theatre arts department faculty member. “In many ways it’s more aligned with Sweeney Todd than any other Sondheim musical. He presents insane delusions that are at times comical and other times frightening. The musical journeys into the psyches of nine successful and failed presidential assassins — individuals who aspire to acceptance, vindication, fame, glory, even love. All of them desperate, lost, frustrated and driven to a final act that, if nothing else, gets them noticed.”

 

Assassins features Trent Bean as John Wilkes Booth, Nolan Derr as Lee Harvey Oswald and Jeff Dransfield as Samuel Byck, among others.

 

Related links:
Theatre Arts Department
Caine School of the Arts Box Office
Caine School of the Arts
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences