Assassins (Classic Stage Company)
Assassins (Classic Stage Company)
86

Assassins (Classic Stage Company) NYC Reviews and Tickets

86%
(181 Ratings)
Positive
97%
Mixed
3%
Negative
0%
Members say
Great acting, Great singing, Absorbing, Clever, Relevant

Sondheim's dark, TONY-winning musical comes to CSC in a new star-studded production. 

Read more Show less

Show-Score Member Reviews (181)

Sort by:
  • Default
  • Standing in our community
  • Highest first
  • Lowest first
  • Newest first
  • Oldest first
  • Only positive
  • Only negative
  • Only mixed
51 Reviews | 1 Follower
100
Relevant, Thought-provoking, Great acting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if You like Sondheim, or anyone in the cast.

Don't see it if You don't want to be exposed to guns.

62 Reviews | 10 Followers
100
Great acting, Thought-provoking, Riveting, Great singing, Absorbing

See it if You are interested in anything Sondheim ever wrote ... or just need a really great time in the theater!

Don't see it if You are afraid of guns (there are a lot of prop guns utilized) Read more

570 Reviews | 87 Followers
100
Great singing, Great writing, Great staging, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if you have even half a brain.This is a brilliant production of one of my favorite Sondheim shows.Performances are mind blowingly good.

Don't see it if your idea of a good musical is MJ or Sponge Bob.If you like Sondheim and appreciate creative theatre, see this.

70 Reviews | 6 Followers
100
Exquisite, Entertaining, Delightful, Clever, Absorbing

See it if The intimate setting makes every seat in the house a good one. It sheds new light on why citizens would want to assassinate their president.

Don't see it if You prefer commercial musicals with gimicky plots.

135 Reviews | 18 Followers
100
Relevant, Great staging, Great acting, Great singing, Absorbing

See it if you want to experience perfect singing, interesting and absorbing staging and if you are a fan of this cast!

Don't see it if you aren't interested in political commentary

Gen
68 Reviews | 9 Followers
98
Profound, Great staging, Great acting, Clever, Absorbing

See it if you like Sondheim, you want something thought-provoking, you want to see some of the most amazing performers at their absolute best. GENIUS

Don't see it if you put the US on a pedestal, you don't like Sondheim's music, you don't like theater in the round

90 Reviews | 22 Followers
97
Intelligent, Great staging, Great singing, Great acting, Absorbing

See it if If you’ve not seen Assassins, this is the production to see. Unexpected performances by a great ensemble. Will Swenson is riveting

Don't see it if Assassins is advanced theatre-going. Don’t let this be your first show.

300 Reviews | 65 Followers
97
Intense, Intelligent, Absorbing

See it if you want to see an all-star cast absolutely crush one of Sondheim's best scores in an intimate setting

Don't see it if you have no taste.

Critic Reviews (15)

The Observer
November 17th, 2021

"I can’t be the only Sondheim nerd sick of respectful, minimalist approaches. Give us full orchestras, monumental design, directors eager to wrestle with convention; scale up, you cowards. Don’t relegate the full sonic and dramatic force of the past century’s greatest musicals to the concert hall or opera house. Or if you’re going to do it in a small venue like CSC, freak the hell out of us. No, those who long for an Assassins to disrupt our peace will have to wait until the next civic atrocity. Take discomfort in the fact that this ominous triumph will always wait for us in the dark, finger on the trigger."
Read more

TheaterScene.net
November 18th, 2021

While the actors give excellent performances, the revival lacks emotion and heart which is strange considering the number of characters who die or who are wounded in the course of the show. It is as though they (and we) are numbed by so much depiction of killing.
Read more

Front Row Center
November 16th, 2021

"Assassins is a particular piece. There is only one prop common to all of the characters: a gun. It is their strength, their sword, their sword arm for that matter. Because they welcome it, and everything for which is stands, they can and will murder – or at least try. But murder, in this case is not a blip on the monitor."
Read more

The New York Times
November 14th, 2021

"The production lacks the power to unsettle despite a fine cast of killers and wannabes who changed, or at least made, history gunning for presidents."
Read more

Time Out New York
November 14th, 2021

"Assassins remains fascinating...The most discomfiting thing about watching Assassins now is the extent to which the isolated mindsets whose dots the musical connects through 120 years of U.S. history have cohered into movements since the show was written. “The country is not what it was,” sings Booth somberly, and many people now would agree. The other national anthem, as the song predicts, is getting louder every year."
Read more

New York Theatre Guide
November 15th, 2021

"5 stars!...Rifles and revolvers get plenty of play. That said, missing this show would be a shame — if you can snag a ticket. Set to open 19 months ago but delayed by the pandemic, director and designer John Doyle’s take on this darkly humorous slice of history is tight, insightful, and impeccably performed. It aims, fires, and hits the mark."
Read more

Variety
November 14th, 2021

"Director John Doyle’s electrifying staging of “Assassins,” Stephen Sondheim’s macabre masterpiece about our national infatuation with fame and our appetite for violence, is a revival to die for — figuratively, of course."
Read more

AM New York
November 14th, 2021

"Are the protesters who violently stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 the contemporary descendants of the men and women who assassinated and attempted to assassinate the Presidents of the United States? This is the disturbing query posed at the end of Classic Stage Company’s eagerly-anticipated Off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s one-of-a-kind 1990 musical “Assassins,” a nonlinear, critical-minded, and darkly comic examination of American assassins and would-be assassins."
Read more