Tony Tuesday: ASSASSINS

For this week’s Tony Tuesday, we’re taking a trip through some of the darker parts of American history, with the musical Assassins. 

Assassins was featured at the 58th Tony Awards, when the 2004 Broadway cast sang ‘Everybody’s Got the Right (Reprise)’. The performance was introduced by Victor Garber, who had previously starred in the show when it opened Off-Broadway.

The show has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, and is loosely based on an original play by Charles Gilbert Jr. The story follows a group of historical figures who all tried to assassinate presidents of the United States, and explores the reasoning behind their acts. John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Lee Harvey Oswald, Leon Czolgosz, Lynette Fromme and more are featured. The show uses a framing device of an all-American carnival game, where a sinister Proprietor provides players with guns and encourages them to kill a president in order to solve their problems.  

The musical began Off-Broadway, playing at Playwrights Horizons from 18 December 1990 until 16 February 1991. Directed by Jerry Zaks, it starred Garber, Terrence Mann, Patrick Cassidy, Debra Monk, Greg Germann, and Annie Golden. This was followed by a London production at the Donmar Warehouse from 29 October 1992 to 9 January 1993, which was directed by Sam Mendes and starred Henry Goodman, who won an Olivier award for Best Actor for his role as Guiteau.

In 2004, a Broadway production opened at Studio 54, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Cerveris and Marc Kudisch. Although this was the first time it had run on Broadway, the Tony Awards Administration Committee ruled that it was a revival rather than an original musical, due to the previous Off-Broadway and London productions. This allowed it to win the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.

Since then, there have been productions of Assassins across the world, including several more in the UK and New York. The most recent revival opened Off-Broadway in November 2021 and closed on 24 January 2022. It starred Judy Kuhn, Will Swenson, Brandon Uranowitz, Wesley Taylor, Ethan Slater and Steven Pasquale. The cast is set to reunite for a one-night-only benefit concert performance on 9 May at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

If you don’t yet know the songs of Assassins, you are spoilt for choice as there are three cast recordings to choose from. The original Off-Broadway cast recording, the 2004 Broadway cast recording and the 2022 Broadway revival cast recording can all be purchased or streamed. And if that’s not enough, you can catch Ben Platt and Zoey Deutch performing one of the songs, ‘Unworthy of Your Love’, on Netflix’s The Politician!

FACTS:

Music: Stephen Sondheim

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: John Weidman

Theatre: Playwrights Horizon (Off-Broadway), Studio 54 (Broadway) 

Run: 18 Dec 1990-16 Feb 1991 (Off-Broadway; 73 performances), 22 April-July 18 2004 (Broadway; 101 performances)

TONYS:

2004 Broadway production:

(NOMINATED) Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Denis O'Hare, Best Scenic Design of a Musical - Robert Brill

(WON) Best Revival of a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Michael Cerveris, Best Direction of a Musical - Joe Mantello, Best Orchestrations - Michael Starobin, Best Lighting Design - Peggy Eisenhauer and Jules Fisher

OLIVIERS:

Original London production:

(NOMINATED) Best New Musical, Best Director of a Musical - Sam Mendes

(WON) Best Actor in a Musical - Henry Goodman