SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

Director Scott Miller and set designer Justin Barisonek exploit that potential [of the ArtLoft Theatre] with elegance and wit. . . with their apt design and distinctive staging, Miller and Barisonek set a welcoming pace, one that's a pleasure to keep.

Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post Dispatch

New Line Theatre's invigorating and richly rewarding production... is a strong, stirring, delicately textured work of art on its own in this first-rate production. Mark Bretz, KDHX-FM

                                    

Sunday in the Park with George is one of the most thrilling, adult musicals in years, inspired by the famous painting by Georges Seurat, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" and by the mysterious, driven man who painted it. With this production, which ran Oct. 9 - Nov. 1, 2003, New Line created an unusual performance space, in which the audience could see the painting from both sides (inside and out, if you like), while actually sitting "inside" the canvas of the painting. 

In a one-of-a-kind theatre experience, the show's creators Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine have translated this classic painting into one of the most original musicals ever on Broadway, a show that asks questions about the price of great talent and the sacrifice of total devotion to art, about the ongoing conflict in every artist's life between the real world and the world of his work, about the universal human need to connect to other people. Just as Seurat used thousands of tiny brushstrokes of pure color to form a gigantic picture, so Sondheim and Lapine use dozens of tiny moments of everyday life to form a larger, richly layered picture of the troubled but brilliant George. This funny, moving, deeply emotional musical study of the enigmatic real-life French painter Seurat won a Pulitzer Prize and loads of other awards for its insightful and highly personal examination of life through art and the artist.

   

Want to explore more? We recommend:  

The original Broadway cast album

The original Broadway script, vocal selections, or complete piano score

The video or DVD of the original Broadway production

Director Scott Miller's background notes on Sunday in the Park

The Sunday pages on Sondheim.com and on the Sondheim Guide website

A page about the painting that inspired the show, Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

A good page with info on Seurat and his other works, and commentary on "La Grande Jatte," and some links about Seurat and his painting. Also, a terrific site of all of Seurat's paintings, and aasite that sells posters and prints, including some lesser known Seurat works.

The "Grande Jatte" topiary in Columbus, Ohio.

Or buy a "Sunday in the Park" necktie. Or a jigsaw puzzle of the Simpsons recreating the painting.

Listen to April Lindsey and Scott Miller perform the opening number from Sunday in the Park with George, on the Oct. 11, 2003 broadcast of NPR's Whad'ya Know?

                              

   

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