The musical Assassins, directed by Colorado Mesa University students Joe Castinado and Blake Hood, will be performed at the Mesa Experimental Theatre inside Moss Performing Arts Center.
Assassins first debuted off Broadway in December 1990 and in 2004, the Broadway production won five Tony Awards. It was written by John Weidman with music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim is known in the music world for his crazy melodic tones and has previously composed music for musicals such as: West Side Story, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods.
The musical is a M rated musical comedy due to its adult language and content.
“It is very comedic and there are some serious parts,” CMU student and in performance, Jonathon Betello said.
It tells the tale of some of America’s most notorious presidential assassins and those who have attempted, but failed, assassinations.
Betello has been cast as one of these attempters, Giuseppe Zangara, a deranged Italian immigrant who attempted to assassinate Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other characters you can see in the play will include John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald.
“This is the first student directed musical [CMU] has ever done,” Co-director Castinado said.
With Assassins being the first show Castinado has directed, he started working on the pitch over a year and a half ago.
Although Castinado started working on this musical over a year and a half ago, the rest of the musical was set up within a handful of weeks.
“Normally musicals get about six to seven weeks,” Betello said. “We only had about four weeks total.”
Show times are 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. starting on Thursday, Sept. 13 through Saturday Sept. 15. Tickets are still on sale for $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for students. You can purchase your tickets online and at the ticket office.
