The Northampton Community College Theatre Department presents Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Assassins,” Oct. 20 - 23, Lipkin Theatre, on the Bethlehem Township campus.

Director William Mutimer calls the musical about nine people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate United States presidents one of most controversial musical ever written.

“Assassins” combines Sondheim’s signature blend of intelligent lyrics and beautiful music with John Weidman’s panoramic story of the culture of celebrity and the violent means some use to obtain it as embodied in four successful and five would-be presidential assassins.

The musical was divisive from the start of its Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 1990. Exploring the lives and motives of assassins was dark even by Sondheim’s standards. Reviews were not great, but “Assassins” has become a cult classic and a popular production in community theaters and on college campuses.

The Broadway premiere in 2004, which starred Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Cerveris, returned the musical to a professional setting. It was nominated for seven Tony Awards, receiving five Tonys, including Best Revival.

In the show, Sondheim and Weidman bend the rules of time and space, having the assassins and would-be assassins from different historical periods meet, interact and influence each other in their harrowing acts.

The seven men and two women gather at a sinister carnival game run by a proprietor (Justin Ferguson), who gives the characters their weapons and encourages them to act on their dark urges.

The Balladeer (Crede Cooper), a personification of the American Dream, narrates the stories of the killers. The musical examines the motivations, from attention-seeking, to a desire to right political injustice, to disillusionment.

The assassins include John Wilkes Booth (Max Wetherhold), who shot Abraham Lincoln; Charles Guiteau (Josh Crowley), who shot James A. Garfield; Leon Czolgosz (Michael Sheridan), who shot William McKinley, and Lee Harvey Oswald (Cade Kocher), who shot John F. Kennedy.

The unsuccessful assassins include Giuseppe Zangara (Connor Sternberg), who fired at but missed President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt; Samuel Byck (Daniel Sottile), who attempted to hijack a plane and crash into the White House in the hopes of killing Richard Nixon; John Hinckley (Josh Raub), who wounded Ronald Reagan, and Lynette (“Squeaky”) Fromme (Samantha Prentice), and Sara Jane Moore (Katelyn Morgan), who plotted to assassinate Gerald Ford.

The cast includes Justin Ferguson, Melisa Munroe, Griffin Boyle, Andy Van Antwerp, Buster Page, Kevin Gaughenbaugh, Isaiah Elleby, Taahira Muhammad, Kaitlin Kolonia, Kennedy Williams, Anna Soldano, Lydia Walker and Asher Cooper.

The score reflects popular music of the various eras in which the characters lived and the tradition of “patriotic” American music. Music direction is by Chad Miller.

“Assassins,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 - 22; 2 p.m. Oct. 23. Seating is general admission.

Tickets: ncctix.org; 484-484-3412

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com