Play Analysis

James Lapine, Librettist 

Interestingly enough, James Lapine originally majored in History at the Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He went on to get an MFA in Design from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.  After grad school he moved to New York where he held an assortment of part time and freelance jobs.  He eventually got a teaching position at Yale as an advertising design professor.  There he had the experience to direct a play during the annual January period when both faculty and students undertook a project outside of their areas of study or expertise.  He then changes his career to peruse theatre full time.  His credits span far and wide as a playwright, a director in both film and theatre.  He has been nominated for a Tony Award a total or 10 times, winning 3 of them.    IBDB.com     JamesLapine.com





Sunday in the Park with George, a Book Musical in Two Acts 
Synopsis

Act I.     A Sunday in Paris in 1884. Georges, an artist, is seated in a park on the island of La Grande Jatte. Georges starts to draw. For Dot, his model and long-suffering lover, standing in the sun, it's just another day.

In the painter's studio, Dot sits at a vanity mirror powdering her face, while, in an identical rhythm, Georges dabs spots of red and purple and white on his new painting. She is preparing to go to the Follies with him, but his painting proves more important -he has to stay to finish a hat. Dot leaves in a rage, realizing that for Georges, his art will always come first.

Returning to the park on another Sunday sometime later, Georges. paints two women called Celeste as gossip about these poor deluded artists. Dot, pregnant, has a new lover, a baker called Louis. True, he's not what she had in mind, but, in a way, his pastries are works of art.

Georges is sorry Dot has left, but that is his life: he watches the world go by, while he sits at his easel, lost in some tiny detail. When she comes by with their child, he does not even look up. Dot and Louis will take the baby to America.

In the park, the Old Lady - Georges' mother - urges him to paint, and preserve, everything that is beautiful before it disappears, before new buildings obliterate the trees. Even as Georges insists that change is beautiful, his mother pines for the old view. Around him, the park fills with characters, squabbling and fighting until Georges calls for "order" and "balance". He commences to re-arrange the people and the trees and, from the chaos, assembles a peaceful promenade on La Grande Jatte. Harmony at last. As the fractious ensemble comes together to form his painting, Georges freezes his models in their final poses.

Act II.     It is now 1984 and Georges' work is on exhibition in America, where his and Dot's daughter Marie, as old as the painting, have come to see it.

With her is her grandson, another George, another artist. Although he's never really believed that the woman in the picture is his grandmother, his latest commission, a big white electrical machine with a sphere on top called Chromolume #7, is his own way of commemorating the famous painting. George and Marie narrate the history of Georges Seurat. After the performance the museum's Director announces that the new condominium development above the gallery is now open for viewing. The inconsequential chit-chat is depressing, but necessary. George is making connections which can lead to exhibitions. As the glittering guests drift off to dinner, Marie looks at her mother in the painting, and trying to relate her to her young grandson.

But Marie dies and George is invited to present his Chromolume in Paris. The island of La Grande Jatte is now a cacophony of concrete towers and the park his supposed great-grandfather painted has dwindled away to a tiny patch of grass. George misses Marie. And, as he thinks of her, Dot appears.

Despite his protestations that he has nothing more to say in his art, she urges him to move on and, as he reads the words Dot's Georges scribbled in her book a century ago, the original promenaders re-convene for one more perfect Sunday. George looks again at the book: "A black page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities . . . " The stage fades to white, and Dot slowly disappears.   SOURCE

CHARACTERS

Act 1, 1884:

Georges - An artist, bearded and brooding, and determined to perfect a new technique of painting

Dot - Georges' model, mistress and the mother of his child

Jules - Another painter, popular and wealthy at the time

Yvonne - Jules' wife

Louise - Their daughter

An Old Lady - A regular stroller in the park and also Georges' mother, though she's not eager to advertise the relationship

The Old Lady's Nurse

Celeste #1, Celeste #2 - Two pretty gossips

Louis - A baker who kneads dough and needs Dot

Mr and Mrs - Two crass tourists from the United States

Franz - A servant

Frieda - A cook

A Boatman - The owner of a black dog, Spot

Act 2, 1984:

George - An artist, but one who spends more time massaging potential sources of commissions than his predecessor.

Marie - Dot's daughter by the first Georges, now old and wheelchair-bound

Bob Greenberg - A museum director, preoccupied keeping up with the new

Naomi Eisen - Composer of the music for Georges' Chromolume presentations

Blair Daniels - An art critic who once championed George but now thinks he's just repeating himself

Harriet Pawling - A wealthy patron of the arts

Elaine - Georges' ex-wife

Billy Webster - A friend of Harriet's

Lee Randolph - The museum's publicist

Dennis - A technician at the museum

Betty and Alex - Other artists

Charles Redmond - A visiting curator of the County commissions to dispense

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

·         Gottfried, Martin. "Everybody's Got The Right To Be Different." Sondheim. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993. 155-66. Print.

This is a great book which includes a brief description of the making of the show as well as an in depth analysis of the piece as a whole.  (I own this book, I found it very helpful but could not find it for free online.)   Amazon.com

·         Swain, Joseph P. "Sondheim's Broadway Musicals." Music & Letters 76.1 (1995): 132-35.Oxford University Press. Web.

A critical analysis of Sondheim’s shows on Broadway also including opinions from other reviews and essays written.   PDF   

·         Sondheim’s Sunday: Art, Broadway Musicals, and Personal Relationships by Sandor Goodhart, Ph.D.

This is a transcript of a lecture delivered at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on October 19, 2012.  It goes into detail about what the show is about and how all the themes of the show fit together as a whole.  PDF

·         Sunday In The park With George: A Musical Curation By Amy Riordan

This analysis serves to reveal the strong interconnectedness between museums and theatre ... Sondheim redirects the focus from Seurat's innovative pointillist style to a focus on the relationship between artist and artwork, allowing for artist and painting to converse.   PDF