Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George (1984), a musical play by James Lapine (book), Stephen Sondheim (music, lyrics). [Booth Theatre, 604 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, NYDCC Award.] Parisian artist Georges Seurat ( Mandy Patinkin) is determined to finish his painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, even if it means his friends and associates will ridicule him and even if in the process he must neglect and lose his mistress, Dot ( Bernadette Peters). Years later his American great‐grandson, George ( Patinkin), is also an artist, hoping to find meaning and purpose working in multimedia while trying to play the funding game with museums and sponsors. But he is encouraged by his grandmother Marie ( Peters) to pursue his art. Visiting the drearily overdeveloped Grande Jatte after her death, he finds solace in her memory and in notes once scribbled by Dot, who appears to George and inspires him to continue on. Notable songs: Sunday in the Park with George; Color and Light; Children and Art; Finishing the Hat; Putting It Together; Sunday; Move On. With its French‐influenced music, intricate lyrics, and intriguing ideas about the creative process, the musical was more a succès d'estime than a hit. Yet for many it was Sondheim's most personal and moving work. Lapine directed the lovely production, a high point being the replication of the Seurat painting at the end of the first act.