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Item Description

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by John Weidman

Assassins is based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.

Playwrights
Horizons, Inc., New York City, produced Assassins off-Broadway in
1990 

It’s a tough subject, but an indelible piece of US history—four of our presidents have had their lives and terms cut short by assassins, with more than a dozen additional attempts. With humor, insight, and memorable music, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman dove into this subject and created Assassins. In his book Look, I made a Hat, Sondheim wrote, “Were I asked to name the show that comes the closest to my expectations…the answer would be Assassins.”

Longtime Lincoln Center Theatre artistic director André Bishop writes, “We are accustomed, in our musical theatre, to examining the lives of those Americans who reveal to us the best part of who we are. Sondheim and Weidman set themselves to a different task. And what they succeeded in doing, brilliantly, was to humanize these assassins . . . and thereby to allow us to get into their minds.”

Mounting a show on a painful and controversial subject on the eve of the 2012 presidential election is a bold choice for CHF and collaborators Doug Peck and Rob Lindley—the team who brought Follies and A Night at the Oscars to the Festival stage. Peck, whose recent Chicago credits include Porgy and Bess at Court Theatre and Candide at Goodman Theatre, has received five Jeff awards for Best Musical Direction. Lindley, who will play The Balladeer in Assassins, recently portrayed Prior Walter in Angels in America at the Court Theatre and received a 2010 Jeff Award for his role in Oh, Coward!. TimeLine Theatre associate artistic director Nick Bowling will direct the CHF production. At TimeLine, he has directed The History Boys, Fiorello!, and the world premiere of My Kind of Town. He recently collaborated with Peck on A Catered Affair for Porchlight Theatre and has received five Jeff awards for Outstanding Direction. Accompanied by a 12-piece orchestra, Peck, Lindley, and Bowling will join some of the hot talent from Follies and Oscars to bring Sondheim’s Assassins to life at this year’s Festival.

Location of Item or Experience:

Francis W. Parker School - Diane and David B Heller Auditorium
2233 N Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60614

Item Special Note

One night only! Monday, November 5 @ 7:30 PM