The title character instigates this event before flashing back to a “madcap medley” cabaret performance in a 2024 comedic play by Cole Escola. Two characters rehearse a reenactment of this event because one of them is afraid of being replaced by a wax dummy at his job. This event, depicted in the penultimate scene of Oh, Mary!, is recreated in another play after one character wins the other’s inheritance of $500 by scamming him at (*) three-card monte. One man wears whiteface to impersonate a central figure in this event, which he reenacts every day at his job at an arcade. The two brothers in Susan Lori Parks’ play Topdog/Underdog are named after the people in this event. This real-life event occurred after one character called another a “sockdologizing old man-trap” during a performance of Our American Cousin. For 10 points, give this event that occurred at Ford’s Theater in 1865. ■END■
ANSWER: assassination of Abraham Lincoln [accept death of Lincoln or Booth killing Lincoln or Mary shooting her husband]
<IZ, American Literature>
= Average correct buzz position