To See or Not to See: Sunday in the Park with George

Let me start off by saying that last night was the last performance of New York City Center’s Sunday in the Park with George so, unfortunately, you can’t see it if you haven’t. If you could still see it, though, I would say, “Run to the box office immediately to get tickets” because the production was fantastic.

Sunday in the Park with George was the first collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. The story centers around artist George Seurat’s most famous piece of artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and Sunday in the Park with George won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985. It has been a widely-revived musical ever since. In the show, we watch as Seurat creates not just the painting, but also his pointillism style and how that effects the people around him.

The largest draw to this limited run (a quasi in concert version–as is typical of New York City Center’s Encores! Series) of Sunday in the Park with George was the talented (and handsome) Jake Gyllenhaal. He starred in the show as George Seurat with Annaleigh Ashford at his side as Dot, Seurat’s model and lover. Stepping into the iconic shoes of Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters from the original stage production would be daunting, but Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford do so with ease; they make each part their own. Gyllenhaal captured Seurat’s intensity, focus, and obsession, and Gyllenhaal’s surprising strength and quality of vocals was a delight. Two of his best moments in the show were singing “The Day Off” when he personified two different dogs out in the park on Sunday—inducing raucous laughter from the audience—and singing the moving duet, “Move On”, with co-star Annaleigh Ashford. In fact, Annaleigh Ashford is exquisite in this production, as well. She is a great comedic actress (having won a Tony for her hilarious turn in You Can’t Take it with You) and adds just enough of that into her tone and facial expressions to make Dot incredibly likable (the same is true for Ashford’s Act II portrayal of elderly grandmother, Marie).

Overall, the cast as a whole is a talented bunch. Zachary Levi (previously on stage in She Loves Me), Carmen Cusack (whose turn in Bright Star was revelatory), Phylicia Rashad, Gabriel Ebert, and Ruthie Ann Miles among others. All of them were solid performers. The end of Act I, when the painting—and the entire cast–comes together, never fails to give me goosebumps.

The only slight criticism of this particular Sunday in the Park with George production is that the stage is so deeply set back that anyone in the balcony (and perhaps rear mezzanine) was unable to see the screen upon which all the paintings and artwork imagery was displayed. Seeing those images is quite integral to your understanding of the show as a whole, and it was frustrating that the production team did not take that into account when staging it. It would have made more sense to have the screen in front of the orchestra rather than at the very back, behind them.

Despite that, Sunday in the Park with George was still able to draw tears as well as smiles from the audience the entire evening. It was a production to remember.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Berger