Sunday in the Park with George
by Terry Hughes
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DVD details
Actor: Barbara Bryne, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Mary D'Arcy, Sue Anne GershensonDirector: Terry Hughes
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 146 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-03-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Sunday in the Park with George
DVD Review: Mandy Patinkin is a god among men
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fabulous production. The quality of cinematography is much higher than earlier Sondheim video releases. This probably has to do with the way that the set design itself tells a story along with the characters. The environment itself is so malleable it's like another character. It's not a simple, straight forward story, though, like Into the Woods or Sweeney Todd, which can make it initially confusing and offputting to the general public. Definitely worth watching though.DVD Review: A Priceless and Exquisite Rendition of Sunday in the Park
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't tell you how much this DVD means to me. Since it is impossible to go back in time and watch Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters perform this beautiful musical live, this is literally the next best thing. Mandy, Bernadette, and all the cast does a magnificent job and, trust me, it translates on-screen. I have seen this DVD countless times and everyone of those times the story greatly moves me. Also, the commentary is wonderful as well. I've learned things about the show I would not have known otherwise and really got a glance into the minds of Stephen Sondheim, James Lapin, Mandy Patinkin, and Bernadette Peters. Like I said before, this DVD is priceless... and if you're a Sondheim fan, I'm sure you will think so too!DVD Review: Look I made a hat, where there never was a hat
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the most interesting shows in the modern musical era. Sondheim's lyrics shine here, and Peters and Patinkin are a great team. Visually stunning, and a good transfer from the original non-digital recording.DVD Review: Bias for Sondheim
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, for me Sondheim can do no wrong. It is eternally frustrating that I cannot get to the centres to see his productions and have to content myself with recordings, or local productions, which are few and far between.These tapes of videoed stage productions are a godsend.
I have long known the music from "Sunday in the Park" and indeed have used certain parts for lectures to my students as they explain well and simply the act of creation. It then is extremely moving to see how this work was presented on stage, and in many ways the DVD has the advantage over seeing it in the theatre as one is able to get close-ups and change of view point.I am not a particular fan of Ms. Peters but her performance as Dot is exceptional, both spirited and touching. Mr Patinkin's unusual voice combined with his skill as an actor makes his version of the role of George extremely moving, particularly in act one. If you enjoy Sondheim, this is for you.
DVD Review: a masterpiece, if not an acquired taste.
Summary: 4 Stars
This musical has always been one of Sondheim's more esoteric pieces (read: definitely not everyone's cup of tea), but it is one of his best musicals and everyone who is a musical lover should experience this at least once. The lyrics are extremely smart and well written, the score is sweeping, the set design is beautiful and innovative, and although I will agree that it can be difficult to 'connect' with the characters and slow paced plot (that includes lots of Art vs. Life types of discussion), it's a very original work. 'Color and Light', 'Finishing The Hat', 'Children and Art', and 'Sunday', are brilliant, and among some of the greatest songs (and most difficult to perform) ever written for musical theatre. And in my opinion, Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patankin give the performances of both their lifetimes. So give it a try. You might not fall in love with it, but I guarentee that you will think about it, long after your first viewing.
Description of Sunday in the Park with George
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte by Georges Seurat is one of the great paintings of the world, and in "Sunday in the Park with George," book writer James Lapine and composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim bring a story based on the work brilliantly to life. While the painting depicts people gathered on an island in the Seine, the musical goes beyond simply describing their lives. It is an exploration of art, of love, of commitment. Seurat connected dots to create images; Lapine and Sondheim use connection as the heart of all our relationships. Winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Stephen Sondheim's landmark 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George is a fictional representation of maverick French Impressionist painter Georges Seurat's efforts to create his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte. Seurat, played by Mandy Patinkin, is obsessed with his work, to the frustration of his mistress, Dot (Bernadette Peters). Along the way, we meet many other characters--whoever happens to be in the park that Sunday--who eventually become part of the canvas.
Act 2 fast-forwards 100 years. Patinkin now plays Seurat's great-grandson, George, himself a frustrated artist. (Peters plays his grandmother--Seurat and Dot's daughter.) In the score's best-known song, "Putting It Together," George (and Sondheim himself) explains the hazards of trying to create art while also confronting the reality of having to pay for it. In a search for inspiration, George travels to the original island where Seurat created the painting. As with Sondheim and cocreator James Lapine's next collaboration, Into the Woods, Sunday is often criticized for redirecting its focus in the second act instead of letting the first act stand by itself as a complete work. The second act, however, is the emotional core of the show, as George confronts all the feelings his great-grandfather had repressed so many years ago.
Stephen Sondheim's brilliant score is remarkable for its combination of vivid colors (listen to his dots of sound that represent Seurat's pointillistic style of painting), character pieces, and sheer beauty. The cast is terrific, and the show, aced out of most of the 1984 Tony Awards by La Cage aux Folles, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Recorded before a live audience, Sunday is especially entertaining on video, as the staging elements bring out the full humor and inventiveness of the show, and it is astonishing to see the disparate characters form themselves into the elements of the familiar painting. So many great musicals are banished to the memories of those who attended live or--even worse--immortalized as inferior movies. Sunday in the Park with George is an absolute must-see for anyone interested in musical theatre, and a must-own for anyone with a passion for it. The DVD includes an audio track with commentary by Sondheim, Lapine, Patinkin, and Peters. --David Horiuchi
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