Tony Award-Winning Musical ASSASSINS Opens Tonight At 3Below Theaters

After a three-year delay, Guggenheim Entertainment will present the highly anticipated production of the multi Tony-winning musical, ASSASSINS.

Assassins brings to the stage a gallery of history's most notorious figures—the men and women who attempted to assassinate the President of the United States. This one-act "revusical" delves into the dark side of the American experience.

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, nine presidential assassins—both successful and would-be—inspire each other to pull the trigger and change their worlds in a perverse and thrillingly entertaining vaudeville. 

This powerful yet unnervingly funny production examines some of the most shocking moments in US history. With a stylish score by Stephen Sondheim and a provocative book by John Weidman, ASSASSINS explores the lives, loves, and lunacy of these individuals, bending the rules of time and space to create a nightmarish roller coaster ride where assassins from different eras meet, interact, and inspire each other to harrowing acts in pursuit of the American Dream. Serious yet satirical, the musical asks what hunger drove these people to their actions and what binds them together.

Cold-blooded killers provide the chilling subject matter for this unusual musical. With typical Sondheim grace and wit, ASSASSINS promises to be a highlight in a year of political turmoil. Nearly thirty years after its premiere, Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS continues to astonish. Bringing together nine successful and would-be presidential assassins—from the narcissistic John Wilkes Booth to the unassuming Lee Harvey Oswald—this "most wanted" musical takes on new urgency at 3Below Theaters under the direction of Artistic Director and Co-Founder Scott Evan Guggenheim. Darkest tragedy intertwined with vaudevillian black comedy animates this remarkable production.

A theatrical tour-de-force, ASSASSINS combines Sondheim's signature blend of intelligently stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic story of our nation's culture of celebrity and the violent means some will employ to achieve it, embodied by nine presidential assassins—four successful and five would-be. Bold, original, disturbing, and alarmingly funny, ASSASSINS stands as perhaps the most controversial musical ever written.

The cast of ASSASSINS includes Stephen Guggenheim (Great Comet, Jerry Springer, Sunday in the Park) as John Wilkes Booth, Kristi Garcia as The Proprietor, David Salper as Giuseppe Zangara, Omar Alejandro as Leon Czolgosz, Ryan Sammonds as John Hinckley, Dario Johnson as Charles Guiteau, Rick Haffner (The Fantasticks) as Samuel Byck, Alexandra Shephard as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Hailey Aviva as Sara Jane Moore, and Jeremy Kreamer (Edwin Drood, The MeshugaNutcracker!) as the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald—all exploring Sondheim's stunning music and sardonic lyrics in a fascinating examination of the twisted American Dream.

Guggenheim Entertainment stages ASSASSINS following their acclaimed productions of other Sondheim works such as SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. The production is designed by Scott & Shannon Guggenheim and Jon Gourdine, with musical direction by Stephen Guggenheim and stage management by Ashley Wilson. ASSASSINS runs at 3Below Theaters from July 11 to August 4, 2024.

Assassins prompts us to consider the assassins' motivations, confronting the pain of societal decay and healing the sicknesses lurking at our core, suggesting political murderers are a product of American political culture.

This production runs for 105 minutes without intermission and includes explicit language and mature content. All guns used are replicas provided and rendered inoperable by a weapons specialist for the safety of our artists and audiences. All gunshot sound effects are pre-recorded.

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