Who but Stephen Sondheim would conceive of a Broadway musical introducing the audience to nine of the most famous presidential assassins and would-be assassins in American history? Sondheim’s musical Assassins opens a three-week run at Springfield Contemporary Theatre’s SCT Center Stage in Wilhoit Plaza (corner of Jefferson and Pershing downtown) September 16-October 9. Directing the production is Gretchen Teague, with musical direction by Alex Huff, conducting what Rick Dines of SCT describes as “the largest orchestra we’ve had since the last Sondheim we did, Sweeney Todd.” Rick, who also designed the sets and created the sound design for this production, plays the first assassin portrayed in the show, John Wilkes Booth. “It’s interesting approaching Booth as he was, through the bulk of his life, a Shakespearean actor.” Based on Rick’s research, he says Booth was “the most politically-minded—and motivated—of the lot. It was right at the end of the Civil War, and he was a Southern
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