ASSASSINS Extends for Additional Week

Due to popular demand, Hayes Theatre Co have extended their season of Assassins until October 22. Due to open tomorrownight (Tuesday September 19) after four sold out previews, the theatre's first Stephen Sondheim musical has been highly anticipated and the show is already garnering glowing audience responses.

Director Dean Bryant (Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity) has assembled a stellar ensemble cast including Laura Bunting (Calamity Jane, Rent), David Campbell (Dream Lover, Today Extra), Kate Cole (Ladies in Black, Sweet Charity), Connor Crawford (The Sound of Music, City of Angels), Martin Crewes (Sweet Charity, Dr Zhivago), Bobby Fox (Jersey Boys, High Society), Hannah Fredericksen (Dream Lover, Heathers), Jason Kos (Cabaret, Miracle City), Rob McDougall (Les Misérables, Rob Guest Endowment finalist), Justin Smith (The Detective's Handbook, Billy Elliott) and recent VCA graduate Maxwell Simon making his professional debut.

A multiple Tony Award-winning theatrical tour-de-force, Assassins combines Sondheim's signature blend of intelligently stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic story of the culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it, embodied by America's four successful and five would-be presidential assassins. Bold, original, disturbing and alarmingly funny, Assassins is perhaps the most controversial musical ever written.

In a fairground shooting gallery a group of misfits gather. Each has a problem they need to solve and each has discovered the answer - they must shoot the President of the United States!

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, we learn of the varied and unusual ways that each has committed (or attempted to commit) the ultimate crime; their motivations and their desire to be recognised for their actions in a world where they are largely dismissed and ignored. Assassins is a chilling and timely reminder that those in power ignore the poor and disenfranchised to their peril.

"Assassins is about a group of people with a diverse set of dreams and one vicious way to achieve them - to assassinate the President of the United States of America," said director Dean Bryant. "What makes a citizen take up a gun and take out the most powerful man in their country? A documentary, black comedy, revue and tour through a hundred years of popular music,Assassins couldn't be more right for Australia now; a time when our newsfeeds are so flooded with US politics that we know more about their leaders than our own."

Andrew Hallsworth and Andrew Worboys (Sweet Charity and Little Shop of Horrors) will reunite with Director Dean Bryant as Choreographer and Musical Director respectively. Steven Kreamer (Little Shop of Horrors, Rent) will be the Associate Musical Director. Alicia Clements (After Dinner, Ivanov) will be designing the sets and costumes, and Ross Graham (Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity) will be returning from New York to design the lighting. Jack Daniel Woods (Calamity Jane, Rent) will be the Production Manager.

ASSASSINS

Presented by Hayes Theatre Co

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by John Weidman

Based on an idea by Charles Gilbert Jnr

Direction by Dean Bryant

Musical Direction by Andrew Worboys and Steven Kreamer

Choreography by Andrew Hallsworth

Set and Costume Design by Alicia Clements

Lighting Design by Ross Graham

Sound Design by Nick Walker

Production Management by Jack Daniel Woods

Executive Produced by Lisa Campbell

Starring Laura Bunting, David Campbell, Kate Cole, Connor Crawford, Martin Crewes, Bobby Fox, Hannah Fredericksen, Jason Kos, Rob McDougall, Maxwell Simon and Justin Smith

Venue: Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point

Season: September 15 - October 22

Times: Mon 6:30pm, Tue-Sat 7.30pm, Wed & Sat 2pm, Sun 22nd October 3pm

Run Time: Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes (no interval)

Patrons' Advice: Recommended for audience members 15 years and older

Bookings: www.hayestheatre.com.au | (02) 8065 7337

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