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September 28, 2022Playhouse Stage Company 35th Anniversary Season Kicks Off with ‘Assassins’ in October
Casting announced for controversial, award-winning musical with an acclaimed score by the late Stephen Sondheim. Production will play Cohoes Music Hall October 13-30, 2022.
The 35th Anniversary Season for Playhouse Stage Company will kick off at Cohoes Music Hall on October 13, with Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s fascinating, dark and often humorous musical Assassins. Playhouse Stage Company has been producing free summer musicals in Albany’s Washington Park since 1989 and producing musicals year-round at Cohoes Music Hall since 2016. The company took over management of the historic Spindle City venue in 2020.
Assassins originally premiered at Playwright’s Horizons in New York City in 1991, and later debuted on Broadway at The Roundabout Theatre’s Studio 54 in 2004, winning multiple Tony Awards. The show combines the late Sondheim’s signature blend of stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic look at our nation’s history, chronicling the deeds of nine individuals who either assassinated or attempted to assassinate a President of the United States. Covering more than a century of American history and drawing from uniquely American musical styles across that period, the show is a revue-style series of scenes and songs that explore the darker side of the American experience. The fascinating, darkly funny book by John Weidman brings the nine assassins and attempted assassins together in a sort of historical limbo, spurring each other on to horrific acts in the name of another national anthem.
The production reunites Director Owen Smith, Producing Artistic Director of Playhouse Stage, and Musical Director Brian Axford, who, together, helmed the company’s critically acclaimed 2019 production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at Cohoes Music Hall. The show will be performed by a fifteen-member cast and eight-member band at the historic venue.
The cast is led by Daniel Jameson (Lee Harvey Oswald/The Balladeer) and Shawn Morgan (The Proprietor), who both return to Playhouse Stage for Assassins after their critically acclaimed performances in Bright Star last season. Returning to the Playhouse for the first time since his leading man performance in 2010’s Annie Get Your Gun is Sam Perwin, who will take on the principal role of John Wilkes Booth. The cast features a number of seasoned performers who have appeared in multiple shows in recent Playhouse Stage seasons, including Chris Frazier as Sam Byck (previously Ms. Trunchbull in Matilda), Benita Zahn as Emma Goldman (previously Louise in Always… Patsy Cline), Marc Christopher as John Hinckley (previously Basilius in Head Over Heels), Brittany Martel as Sara Jane Moore (previously Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain) and Jacob Lehning as Giuseppe Zangara (previously Toad in A Year With Frog & Toad). The cast is rounded out by returning Playhouse players Michelle Oppedisano as Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Dan Costello as Charles Guiteau, and Playhouse newcomer James Alexander as Leon Czolgosz, along with an ensemble featuring Dashira Cortes, Josh Hoyt, Rieleigh Smith and Garret Collins.
Assassins will run October 13-30, 2022 at Cohoes Music Hall, with performances playing Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are now on sale through the Playhouse Stage Box Office at Cohoes Music Hall, and subscriptions for the full 35th Season are also available. More information about Assassins and the Playhouse Stage 35th Season can be found online at www.playhousestage.org or by calling the box office at 518-434-0776.
