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Everybody’s got the right to tune in on March 8! Creators Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, director Jerry Zaks, and actors from the original Off-Broadway cast of the dark comedy Assassins will reunite on March 8 at 8 p.m. ET for a live-streamed reunion to discuss the landmark show. The event can be viewed here.
The free virtual event will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the musical, which premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1990 and closed in 1991. The reunion will be part of the Studio Tenn Talks: Conversations with Patrick Cassidy series. Cassidy was the original Balladeer in the musical; the other members of the original cast feature a host of starry names and future stars, including Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry, and Lee Wilkof.
Joining the cast and Tony Award winners Sondheim, Weidman, and Zaks will be original musical director Paul Gemignani and orchestrator Michael Starobin. The entire company will come together and relive the moments of creating this historically-inspired piece, which tracks the beliefs and lives of nine individuals who tried or succeeded in assassinating United States presidents.
Multiple Broadway productions have been planned for this musical, with many thwarted during times of greater nationalism, such as after 9/11. Still, the one Broadway production in 2004 did receive the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Most recently, a production to be staged at Classic Stage Company was postponed due to COVID. The John Doyle-directed production, according to the theater, “was scheduled to begin performances on April 2 and was nearly sold out when theaters closed on March 12. The theater plans to resume production on the musical as soon as theaters can reopen safely.”
Broadway Cast of “Assassins”. Photo by Joan Marcus.
