Musical Theatre’s ‘Assassins’ a real killer

“Assassins” ought to put asses in the seats at the Medicine Hat Musical Theatre playhouse over the next three weeks.

Opening tonight, the local company’s take on the Tony Award-winning show had its media night performance Wednesday, and presents some of the happy-go-luckiest musical numbers that you’re likely to ever see about assassins — both successful and failed.

Having a passing knowledge of U.S. history will help you better understand the show, but if you don’t have that just get to your seat a little early to read the character biographies in the program and you’ll be fine.

Within the larger setting of a somewhat twisted carnival that has people lining up to kill past U.S. presidents, the story takes a look at how John Wilkes Booth came to shoot Abraham Lincoln, how John Hinckley Jr. took his shot(s) at Ronald Reagan and assassination attempts in between.

All the performers do what they can to make their take on their historical character stand out, with Tyler Johnson’s timid and weak John Hinckley Jr. and Dave Townsend’s polar opposite Charles Guiteau (who killed James Garfield) worthy of special note. Shannon English as Sarah Jane Moore (an attempted Gerald Ford assassin) brings an innocence that nicely juxtaposes Moore's ultimate goal.

Not all the assassination attempts are based on politics — celebrity and seeking a place in history also spark tries — but Roy Devore’s screed as Samuel Byck (who wanted to fly a 747 into the White House to kill Richard Nixon) on the lies told and promises made by all politicians could have been written in any century.

History’s most infamous assassin appears and takes the lion’s share of Act II, which ends with Lee Harvey Oswald and the rest of the assassins singing their motto to the audience, that "everybody’s got the right to be happy.” Even if that means killing a U.S. president.

“Assassins” runs April 28-29, May 4-6 and 11-13 at 8 p.m. All shows are at the Medicine Hat Musical Theatre Playhouse.

Tickets $30 plus GST, are available by calling 403-5023477 and at www.mhmtheatre.com. More information is available on the website.

NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT John Wilkes Booth, played by Doug Frelick (right), is warned by a friend, played by Paul Parks, that there is a manhunt out for him after his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln during the Medicine Hat Musical Theatre production of Assassins....