Sunday in the Park with George (1984 Original Broadway Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Sunday in the Park with George (1984 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Great, but you have to see the show (or the dvd/video) first
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an excellent CD. The score is great and it's amazing how Sondeim made the words fit so well and mean so much. Even so, if you listen to this before you've seen the whole show, you'll find most of the songs boring or unnecessary. I still do, sometimes, but in the context of the plot, they all make sense and are sometimes even funny.
I think both Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin put a lot of emotion and feeling into their performances and suit their characters perfectly. Their voices are beautiful, especially when paired with these excellent songs, which, I have to disagree with previous reviewers, are not monolouges set to music or tuneless and melody-less.
Some of my favourite songs from here are Sunday in the Park with George, Colour and Light, Finishing the Hat, We do not Belong Together, Move On and Sunday. The Day Off is really quite funny when you see it staged, too, so if you really want to understand this musical, I would reccommend buying the DVD. Still, this is a great CD and worth owning!
Free Music Review: Incredible
Hit: 5 Stars
Before I get to the bulk of this review, there is one thing that must be made absolutely clear up front: this will require multiple listens. You cannot listen to it once and dismiss it as too complex or "intellectual" - I love it more every time I hear it.
This show is nothing short of amazing - it tackles themes so original and so removed from those of standard musicals that it deserves credit for that alone. However, the fact that Sondheim is able to take such uncharacteristic plot elements, characters and musical styles and blend them into this masterpiece is incredible. The songs themselves allude and in fact shape the feel of the show. This is clear throughout, but especially shines in the incredible dynamic of speed and volume on the opening track "Sunday in the Park With George," which paces perfectly with the tone and content of Dot's asides and the insatiable nature of both characters. The rivetting stacatto and frenetic lyrics of "Color and Light" are a perfect sonic recreation of Pointilism.
All the songs can be described in such metaphorical terms, but this is not to say they don't excel in other ways. Far from it: the rich emotional portrait painted by the orchestration and lyrics is matched by stunning and stylized vocal performances by a phenomenal cast.
Sunday in the Park With George is an unforgettable journey. Although it may be less accessible than much of the genre, it is an artistic and emotional triumph.
Free Music Review: A Stunning Work of Artistic Merit.
Hit: 5 Stars
"Sunday in the Park with George," a nothing-if-not-ambitious music theatre piece that explores the ins and outs of the creative process, is--as composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim himself has admitted--a weird show. Collaborating with book-writer James Lapine, Sondheim created a musical that has no real plot, a myriad of characters with relationships that in the end add nothing to the whole, and no "showtunes"--at least not in the classic sense. Yet despite what could easily be seen as setbacks, "Sunday" emerges as a masterpiece of the modern musical theatre.
This recording preserves Sondheim's highly intellectual score, which is greatly served by Michael Starobin's orchestrations and the solid singing & characterizations of every single member of the ensemble. However, calling Sondheim's score "intellectual" is perhaps a disservice to the beauty and wit of his music and lyrics, as many of his critics accuse his work of being "all brain and no heart."
It's hard to imagine that someone devoid of emotion could have written a song like "Move On," a sweeping anthem about finding your own voice as an artist, and not dwelling on past mistakes (an experience very close to Sondheim's heart, as flops such as "Merrily We Roll Along" and "Anyone Can Whistle", despite their brilliance failed miserably--the former prompting Sondheim to consider quitting the theatre!); or "Finishing the Hat," in which the title character sings of his ferocious dedication to his art, and the painful toll it has taken on his personal life; or the aptly titled "Beautiful" in which George and his nostalgic mother ruminate on the nature of beauty.
I could go on; there are countless emotionally stirring gems on the album, complimented nicely by exquisitely-written, nearly conversational songs such as the anxious title song, or "Gossip" in which two critics pompously analyze one of George's paintings. I dare you to not be impressed with Sondheim's facility in rhyme with "Gossip," "It's Hot Up Here," or "Putting it Together."
As far as performers, the two leads are a couple of the best in the business. It's hard to imagine anyone improving the work of the incomparable Bernadette Peters, in the dual roles of Dot (George's jilted lover) and Marie (Dot's daughter, 100 years later). Peters' voice is particular, expressive, and enormously powerful when it needs to be. Unfortunately, Mandy Patinkin's beautifully understated work as both Georges is lost without the visual, but his lilting tenor voice is also impressive in its flexibility and, at times, raw power. But I must note again, that there is not a weak voice or performance in the entire cast.
This recording is valuable for fans of both Sondheim and of musical theatre; the former get to relish in the brilliant output by the theatre's current foremost composer/lyricist; the latter to experience other avenues and forms musical theatre can take. Although Jerry Herman won the Tony over Sondheim with "La Cage..." (making what could be conceived of as a snipe at Sondheim in his acceptance speech), the gravity and depth of Sondheim's work here is every bit as valuable and noteworthy as Herman's (or Porter's, or Hammerstein's, or Loesser's, etc.) ability to write a "catchy" melody.
"Sunday in the Park with George" is a stunning work of artistic merit.
Free Music Review: Sondheim at his best
Hit: 4 Stars
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE surely must count as one of Stephen Sondheim's most amazing scores, one that continually rewards the listener with it's simplistic-yet complicated nature.
The Broadway production of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE features the irresistible Bernadette Peters with Mandy Patinkin in the title role. The story takes what little is known of the life of Parisian artist Georges Seurat and weaves it into a story of life, loss and coming to know yourself. The first act follows George as he paints the legendary "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". His mistress and model Dot (Bernadette Peters) attempts to pursue a relationship with George that goes beyond art. She is rejected and leaves for America with another man (and George's baby).
The second act of the show opens with George's great-grandson, also an artist struggling with his own inspiration. Dot's daughter Marie (also played by Bernadette Peters) gently guides his hand, but it's only when George returns to the scene of his great-grandfather's masterwork that the past comes to rest with the future.
The score is full of gems like Dot's manic opening number "Sunday in the Park with George", the wrenching "We Do Not Belong Together" and the eccentric "Everybody Loves Louis". One of the biggest highlights is the moving "Sunday" as well as the clarifying "Move On" where the younger George is visited by Dot and the other members of the Grande Jatte painting.
To get a better idea of the staging and direction within the piece, you may wish to also purchase the well-presented DVD which preserves the Broadway production. Definitely a score which improves with repeated listening.
Free Music Review: Good Show .. Great Score
Hit: 4 Stars
The score for "Sunday In The Park With George" generally outshines the production. The show is good, but a bit slow.
Filled with beautiful melodies & anchored by a great cast (esp. Bernadette Peters & Mandy Patinkin), Stephen Sondheim's 1984 score contains several notable tracks, including:
Sunday In The Park With George
Finishing The Hat
Sunday
Putting It Together
Children And Art [my personal favorite]
Move On
A must for theater lovers & Sondheim followers!