John Wilkes Booth

Who is John Wilkes Booth?

Booth opens Assassins and returns throughout the show as a charismatic, self-justifying figure who recruits and encourages the later assassins, treating his own act not as a crime but as patriotic vengeance for the South. He frames himself as a man of conviction and artistry rather than a killer.

That self-mythologizing makes Booth the show's central voice of dangerous persuasion, the assassin whose rhetoric other, more damaged and lonely figures latch onto for meaning. His confrontation with Lee Harvey Oswald late in the show reveals just how deliberately he has shaped his own legend.

Booth's role in Assassins

Booth is a lead role and effectively the show's frame character, appearing in the opening and closing sequences and delivering the reflective, self-serving Ballad of Booth. The part demands a commanding baritone and the charisma to make Booth's delusions genuinely persuasive to the audience as well as to the other characters.

The role was originated Off Broadway by Victor Garber in 1990 and was played on Broadway in 2004 by Michael Cerveris, who won a Tony Award for the performance. Both actors are remembered for finding real seductive charm inside a deeply unsettling figure.

John Wilkes Booth: frequently asked questions