Sunday in the Park with George
Michael Brandman, Emanuel Azenberg and The Shubert Organisation in association with American Playhouse.
DVD 8573861452 Musical
This is a complete Broadway production preserved on DVD. Originally available on VHS, this DVD version delivers the higher quality video and audio you would expect. In addition there is a full-length commentary about the show by Stephen Sondheim (composer and lyricists), James Lapine (book and direction), Mandy Patinkin (George) and Bernadette Peters (Dot). Sunday in the Park with George is a work of fiction based on the life of George Seurat and his most famous painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Seurat belonged to the Neo-impressionism school of painting during his short life (1859—1891). His contemporaries included Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Gauguin, Cézanne, Bernard and Van Gogh. Little is known about Seurat’s life, but this monumental painting is testimony to his ideas about style and technique, color and light.
James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim have conjured up a story that is as daring as Seurat’s painting when he created it. The story is witty and imaginative, portraying the characters in the painting and the method used to create it as subject matter in Act 1. Act 2 begins with a bridge between the past and the present. The present places another George (the great-grandson of Seurat) in the spotlight as a contemporary artist suffering for his art as he vies for the dollars of late 20th century patrons and philanthropists.
Sunday in the Park with George is quirky, yet hypnotically enticing musical theatre.
The bonus full-length commentary on the DVD is light-hearted and enlightening, making this DVD good value for musical theatre enthusiasts.