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East West Players (EWP), the nation’s longest-running Asian American theatre and the largest producer of Asian American theatrical works, is proud to announce the resuming of in person production with the award-winning Broadway musical Assassins from February 17 through March 20, 2022, with opening night scheduled for Sunday, February 20, 2022, at 5:00pm. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by John Weidman, Assassins is directed by East West Players’ Producing Artistic Director Snehal Desai, and musical direction by Marc Macalintal.
A darkly comic Tony-award winner that examines the motives of the nine notorious Americans who took their shot at the President of the United States, Assassins is the twelfth Sondheim musical mounted by East West Players in its fifty-six-year history of producing theatre in Los Angeles. This wickedly subversive spectacle explores the national fixation on celebrity and its violent intersection with the American dream.
“After an unprecedented 23 months, East West Players is looking forward to reopening our doors with Assassins. On what was to be opening night in March 2020, we made the difficult decision to halt production. We are thrilled audiences will finally get the chance to see this electrifying and intoxicating production whose resonance has deepened and intensified over the course of the last two years,” says EWP’s Producing Artistic Director and director of Assassins Snehal Desai. “We are also moved that this re-opening production continues the longstanding relationship East West Players has with the incomparable Stephen Sondheim as we honor his legacy.” East West Players’ production of Assassins will be the first Los Angeles production of one of the late composer-lyricist’s works since his recent passing this November.
The cast of Assassins is headlined by Gedde Watanabe (Original Broadway Cast of Pacific Overtures, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and La Cage Aux Folles at East West Players), Joan Almedilla (Broadway national tour of The King And I, and recently starring as Donna Sheridan in East West Players’ Mamma Mia!), and Adam Kaokept, making his East West Players debut, (Broadway: Miss Saigon Revival and Disney’s Aladdin Original Cast).
Performance times from Thursday, February 17th through Sunday, March 20th are 8 PM Thursday to Saturday, with 2 PM matinees on Saturday, and 5pm performances on Sunday. Ticket prices range from $50 to $75. A Pay-What-You-Can performance is scheduled for Monday, February 21st at 8PM. All performances of Assassins are presented at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center of the Arts at 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 in Little Tokyo.
Tickets may be purchased online at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (323) 609-7006. At time of purchase please mention any wheelchair/accessible seating needs. Student, senior, and group discounts are available.
