Show guide
Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday in the Park with George is a hauntingly original musical inspired by the creation of a famous pointillist painting, exploring the cost and reward of devoting oneself to art. Stephen Sondheim's score turns the act of painting itself into music.
- Broadway premiere
- 1984
- Music by
- Stephen Sondheim
- Genre
- Drama
- Setting
- 1880s
Sunday in the Park with George: quick answers
What is Sunday in the Park with George about?
- In Act 1, painter Georges Seurat neglects his mistress, Dot, while obsessively creating A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Act 2 follows his great-grandson George, a contemporary artist wrestling with his own work and legacy.
When did Sunday in the Park with George open on Broadway?
- Sunday in the Park with George opened on Broadway on May 2, 1984, at the Booth Theatre and closed on October 13, 1985, after 604 performances. It won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was revived on Broadway in 2008 and 2017.
What kind of musical is Sunday in the Park with George?
- It is a serious, original musical drama about art and creation, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, inspired by Seurat's painting rather than an existing story.
Where and when is Sunday in the Park with George set?
- Act 1 is set in Paris and on the island of La Grande Jatte in the mid-1880s; Act 2 jumps to 1984, first at a museum and then back on the island.
Has Sunday in the Park with George played in London's West End?
- London's National Theatre staged it in 1990, winning the Olivier for Best New Musical. A Menier Chocolate Factory revival transferred to Wyndham's Theatre in 2006 and won five Olivier Awards, including Outstanding Musical Production.
Is there a Sunday in the Park with George movie?
- The original Broadway production, with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, was taped and broadcast on Showtime in February 1986 and on PBS's American Playhouse that June.
The story of Sunday in the Park with George
The musical imagines the life and mind of a painter working in France in the 1880s, obsessively composing a large scale scene on canvas dot by dot. Through his relationships, especially with the woman who loves him, the show examines the isolation and single mindedness that great art can demand of the person making it.
Rather than following a conventional plot, the piece is structured around the act of composition itself, mirroring the painter's technique in its own storytelling and staging. It is as much a meditation on artistic legacy as it is a narrative about a particular historical moment.
The music and the makers
Stephen Sondheim wrote the score, and it stands among the most inventive and intellectually ambitious in his catalogue. Sondheim built musical patterns that echo the painter's dotted brushstrokes, using rhythm and harmony to suggest the discipline and obsession of the creative process.
As a work of drama rather than pure spectacle, the show reflects Sondheim's long standing interest in pushing the musical form toward more challenging, character driven territory. The songs are intricate and emotionally layered, rewarding close listening as much as they move the story forward.
Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway
The show arrived on Broadway in 1984 as one of Sondheim's most artistically daring projects, a musical that dared to be about the nature of creation itself. It was celebrated for its intelligence and its visual imagination, standing apart from the more conventional entertainments of its era.
Its reputation has only grown over time, with the piece now regarded as one of the most thoughtful works in the American musical theatre repertoire. Audiences continue to be drawn to its unusual blend of formal invention and deep emotional feeling.
Sunday in the Park with George: frequently asked questions
When did Sunday in the Park with George open on Broadway?
It opened on Broadway in 1984.
Who composed Sunday in the Park with George?
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics.
What is Sunday in the Park with George about?
It centers on a painter in 1880s France and explores the personal cost of dedicating oneself completely to art.
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