It’s a tricky time to be staging Assassins anywhere in the United States. The provocative musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman centers on historical figures who attempted to assassinate or succeeded in killing American presidents. Following last year’s assassination attempts on Donald Trump and the fatal shooting of a healthcare CEO by a radicalized gunman, the show’s themes now feel less like history and more like headlines.
“It was chosen in early summer of last year way before the election,” says Miners Alley Performing Arts Center artistic director Len Matheo. “But we always said, ‘Well, it could be interesting depending on what happens in the election.’”
That speculation has become all too real. Now, Miners Alley’s production of Assassins runs August 8 through September 14 in Golden. It marks the company’s first foray into the Sondheim canon and offers a stripped-down, sharply stylized take on the Tony Award-winning musical. The musical, directed by Warren Sherrill and music directed by David Nehls, follows a group of presidential assassins.
“It is timely in a sense, no matter who's in the office,” Sherrill says. “But it wasn’t chosen because it was timely. It was chosen because it's just a great musical that hasn't been done for a while, and it just happens to be extremely timely.”
Originally premiering Off-Broadway in 1990 and revived on Broadway in 2004, Assassins explores the motives behind infamous figures like John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau and Lee Harvey Oswald. The piece is framed as a revue, with assassins given the opportunity to explain their rationale and goals.
"Conceptually, I took the carnival undertones a little further," Sherrill says. "This is more of a sideshow, and the Proprietor is basically saying, ‘Step right up, come look at these people on display.’ I hate to say the phrase ‘freak show,’ but that's kind of the way I want it to come off. In other words, there are people for us as viewers to look at as we reflect on this sad part of our history."
Julia Tobey plays the Proprietor, reimagined here as a genderless, devil-like puppet master who weaves in and out of roles, including some walk-on presidents, while supplying the assassins with their weapons.
“She's kind of an everyman,” Sherrill explains. “She joins the crowd that sees the attempts at assassination, and she just kind of floats in and out. Ultimately, she's like the puppet master of the whole thing and almost, if not actually, a devil figure who manipulates all these people into this hell.”
Tobey agrees. “I believe the proprietor, starting with John Wilkes Booth, was like, ‘I'm gonna put this plan into place to get to where we are with the most present-day assassination attempt,’ which was Reagan at the time,” she says. “They are a puppet master and ringleader who is putting all the tools in their hands, literally.”
Musically, Nehls is merging elements from both the original small-band orchestrations and the larger Broadway revival. He's also introducing electric instruments to emphasize the show's volatility.
“A word that we've been using is 'bipolar,' so there are extremes through all this music,” Nehls says. “It's already in there, but we're just exacerbating it. There's very, very little middle ground; it's either in your face or hauntingly intimate. What we're introducing are several electrical elements, like electric guitar and distortion, and introducing that into this score elevates that wide swath of emotions. For people who are very familiar with Assassins, it'll sound very different."
The new sonic texture complements the haunting, claustrophobic setting. “Even though it's already edgy, it adds another layer of surprise,” Nehls says. “And the fact that we're in this creepy setting also adds that element of uncomfortableness with what's happening, but it's not uncomfortable to a point where it might put people on edge. We're having a good time with it already.”
Visually, the show leans into repetition and cyclical movement. “That's an interesting part of my concept as well,” Sherrill says. “It's the idea that what goes around comes back around, always. And there's this pendulum that always swings, and that's kind of how it has been throughout history in the USA.”
That recurring cycle, the persistent belief that America was somehow better in the past, hits especially hard now. Both Sherrill and Tobey point to John Wilkes Booth's song "The Ballad of Booth," about defending his country, as having new meaning in 2025.
"John says, and Sondheim notes that this is from his diary, that ‘the country is not what it was,’ which I’d say translates roughly to ‘Make America Great Again.’ It's always that cycle of we're never as good as it used to be in the good old days," Sherrill says. I'm really emphasizing the cyclical nature of violence, and that's why we put that turntable in there, and then a lot of the movement kind of goes in circles."
In a state still haunted by the legacies of Columbine and the Aurora theater shooting, the presence of guns onstage is never taken lightly. For Miners Alley, that meant rethinking how firearms function theatrically, both visually and sonically, to avoid retraumatizing audiences.
"We are using replicas, which is a difference between a gun that's been decommissioned or had the firing pin removed because these never could fire; they're replicas,” Matheo explains. “They're fake guns, is the better way to put it for the average person.”
“They look real and they're of the period,” Sherrill adds, “but they are impossible to fire.”
Instead of realistic sound effects or direct audience targeting, the production uses percussion to simulate shots without risking trauma.
“Even the sound effects we've been sensitive to as well,” Sherrill says. “Our percussionist will be making that sound on the snare drum, so it’s not going to be a scary big ‘bang.' There's no reason to do that. We know what it represents and the lyrics are powerful enough to communicate what’s going on."
While the show’s themes may alienate some, the creative team insists Assassins isn’t preaching to one side of the political spectrum.
“You would think that it'd be targeted to liberals or anti-gun people, and it's not,” Matheo says. “Because there's so much storytelling that's not preachy or pedantic, you can actually make up your own mind. For me, and this is not necessarily Warren's specific vision, the show is about mental illness. There's a sickness in society, and these people can't be seen mentally or physically. They've probably never been seen by a mom or anything, and they're just looking to be seen. The musical is not, ‘Oh, look at these crazy people.’ This is about that guy [Luigi Mangione] who killed the healthcare CEO."
And in 2025, as audience members carry recent history into the room, Matheo knows the reactions could be as volatile as the material.
“Since this was written, there's been more presidential assassination attempts,” he says. "We now live in a world where there has been a public assassination attempt on Trump and the successful murder of a CEO. I think that might be on the minds of audience members wandering in. That’s really the big unknown: how are people going to react? I have no idea.” “Yeah,” Sherrill says. “It's going to be interesting, to say the least.”
Assassins previews are Wednesday, August 6 and Thursday, August 7, and it runs from Friday, August 8, through Sunday, September 14, at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, 1100 Miner's Alley, Golden. Learn more at minersalley.com.
“It was chosen in early summer of last year way before the election,” says Miners Alley Performing Arts Center artistic director Len Matheo. “But we always said, ‘Well, it could be interesting depending on what happens in the election.’”
That speculation has become all too real. Now, Miners Alley’s production of Assassins runs August 8 through September 14 in Golden. It marks the company’s first foray into the Sondheim canon and offers a stripped-down, sharply stylized take on the Tony Award-winning musical. The musical, directed by Warren Sherrill and music directed by David Nehls, follows a group of presidential assassins.
“It is timely in a sense, no matter who's in the office,” Sherrill says. “But it wasn’t chosen because it was timely. It was chosen because it's just a great musical that hasn't been done for a while, and it just happens to be extremely timely.”
The cast of Assassins at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center rehearses a musical number.
Toni Tresca
"Conceptually, I took the carnival undertones a little further," Sherrill says. "This is more of a sideshow, and the Proprietor is basically saying, ‘Step right up, come look at these people on display.’ I hate to say the phrase ‘freak show,’ but that's kind of the way I want it to come off. In other words, there are people for us as viewers to look at as we reflect on this sad part of our history."
Julia Tobey plays the Proprietor, reimagined here as a genderless, devil-like puppet master who weaves in and out of roles, including some walk-on presidents, while supplying the assassins with their weapons.
“She's kind of an everyman,” Sherrill explains. “She joins the crowd that sees the attempts at assassination, and she just kind of floats in and out. Ultimately, she's like the puppet master of the whole thing and almost, if not actually, a devil figure who manipulates all these people into this hell.”
Tobey agrees. “I believe the proprietor, starting with John Wilkes Booth, was like, ‘I'm gonna put this plan into place to get to where we are with the most present-day assassination attempt,’ which was Reagan at the time,” she says. “They are a puppet master and ringleader who is putting all the tools in their hands, literally.”
Musically, Nehls is merging elements from both the original small-band orchestrations and the larger Broadway revival. He's also introducing electric instruments to emphasize the show's volatility.
“A word that we've been using is 'bipolar,' so there are extremes through all this music,” Nehls says. “It's already in there, but we're just exacerbating it. There's very, very little middle ground; it's either in your face or hauntingly intimate. What we're introducing are several electrical elements, like electric guitar and distortion, and introducing that into this score elevates that wide swath of emotions. For people who are very familiar with Assassins, it'll sound very different."
Warren Sherrill (right), director of Assassins, works with his cast to refine the musical's staging.
Toni Tresca
Visually, the show leans into repetition and cyclical movement. “That's an interesting part of my concept as well,” Sherrill says. “It's the idea that what goes around comes back around, always. And there's this pendulum that always swings, and that's kind of how it has been throughout history in the USA.”
That recurring cycle, the persistent belief that America was somehow better in the past, hits especially hard now. Both Sherrill and Tobey point to John Wilkes Booth's song "The Ballad of Booth," about defending his country, as having new meaning in 2025.
"John says, and Sondheim notes that this is from his diary, that ‘the country is not what it was,’ which I’d say translates roughly to ‘Make America Great Again.’ It's always that cycle of we're never as good as it used to be in the good old days," Sherrill says. I'm really emphasizing the cyclical nature of violence, and that's why we put that turntable in there, and then a lot of the movement kind of goes in circles."
In a state still haunted by the legacies of Columbine and the Aurora theater shooting, the presence of guns onstage is never taken lightly. For Miners Alley, that meant rethinking how firearms function theatrically, both visually and sonically, to avoid retraumatizing audiences.
"We are using replicas, which is a difference between a gun that's been decommissioned or had the firing pin removed because these never could fire; they're replicas,” Matheo explains. “They're fake guns, is the better way to put it for the average person.”
“They look real and they're of the period,” Sherrill adds, “but they are impossible to fire.”
Instead of realistic sound effects or direct audience targeting, the production uses percussion to simulate shots without risking trauma.
“Even the sound effects we've been sensitive to as well,” Sherrill says. “Our percussionist will be making that sound on the snare drum, so it’s not going to be a scary big ‘bang.' There's no reason to do that. We know what it represents and the lyrics are powerful enough to communicate what’s going on."
While the show’s themes may alienate some, the creative team insists Assassins isn’t preaching to one side of the political spectrum.
The cast of Miners Alley Performing Arts Center' production of Assassins practices the first musical number.
Toni Tresca
And in 2025, as audience members carry recent history into the room, Matheo knows the reactions could be as volatile as the material.
“Since this was written, there's been more presidential assassination attempts,” he says. "We now live in a world where there has been a public assassination attempt on Trump and the successful murder of a CEO. I think that might be on the minds of audience members wandering in. That’s really the big unknown: how are people going to react? I have no idea.” “Yeah,” Sherrill says. “It's going to be interesting, to say the least.”
Assassins previews are Wednesday, August 6 and Thursday, August 7, and it runs from Friday, August 8, through Sunday, September 14, at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, 1100 Miner's Alley, Golden. Learn more at minersalley.com.
