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| Charlene Baldridge 80 years ago |
Sunday in the Park
with George
Friday night at San Diego Museum of Art’s Copley Auditorium,
ion theatre, in association with San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), opened its
production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1984 Broadway, Pulitzer
Prize-winning Sunday in the Park With
George, co-directed by ion Producing Artistic Director Glenn Paris and Kim
Strassburger, with musical direction by Mark Danisovszky. Executive Artistic
Director Claudio Raygoza is the producer. The first professional production of the
work in San Diego, Sunday in the Park
with George continues Tuesdays-Sundays through July 16.
If you’re a Sondheim devotee like I, you’re not seeing Sunday in the Park for the first time (I
saw it at The Goodman in Chicago many years ago and the painting was on view at
the Art Institute one block away—the Art Institute was my home away from home
when I was studying voice in the Loop). I plan on buying a ticket to see it
again.
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| Melissa Fernandes as Dot and the company of Sunday in the Park Photo by Daren Scott |
Be assured the ion company is as good as that seen anywhere,
starting with the leads (Melissa Fernandes as Dot/Marie and Jon Lorenz as
Georges/George) and moving right through the entire company of 14 to the
smallest, Louise, the Child, played by 5th grader Katrina Heil.
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| Jon Lorenz as George, who returns to La Grande Jette in Act II Photo by Daren Scott |
Others in the outstanding company (where else such a gathering
of San Diego’s finest?) are Stewart Calhoun, Morgan Carberry, Devlin, Walter
DuMelle, Priti Gandhi, Patrick Gates, Jesse MacKinnon, Lizzie Morse, Julia
Nardi-Loving and Wendy Waddell.
Sunday in the Park
with George concerns the French painter Georges Seurat (1859-1891), his
innovative, post-impressionist style (pointillism), and his utter concentration
on his work in progress, A Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. In Lapine’s book for the
musical, Georges’ obsession causes him to neglect Dot, his mistress, who also
poses for him (“I love your painting; I feel I’m fainting” in the opening,
title song). Ultimately she leaves him and marries Louis, the Baker (Charlie
Gange) and soon after gives birth to Marie, Georges’ daughter. She and Louis
move to America. To thrilling effect, every character in the musical’s first
act appears in Seurat’s painting, which also opens Act II with “It’s Hot Up
Here.”
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| Mixing up the centuries in Act II: Fernandes as Dot and Lorenz as her grandson, George Photo by Daren Scott |
Each actor plays a different character in the musical’s much
shorter second act, which takes place 100 years later in a museum. Lorenz plays
Georges’ artist grandson, George, and Fernandes plays Dot’s daughter, Marie,
George’s mother, now an old woman in a wheelchair. George, a successful sound
sculptor stuck in a rut, searches for meaning – (“we leave only two worthwhile
things behind, art and children”). George feels like he’s got a good thing
going but he’s been doing it over and over again and it’s killing his creative
purpose. His assistant leaving him to return to NASA is a real wakeup call. And
it isn’t until he gives credence to his heritage through reading Dot’s notebook
and returns to La Grande Jatte that he gets the inspiration to move forward.
Though Sunday in the
Park has deeply amusing lyrics, and harkens both back and forward in his
oeuvre musically, the work is as impressionistic as the impressionists, as
forward-looking as the then soon to be erected Eiffel Tower, it is quite unlike
any other musical, even one by Sondheim. Interesting to note that Georges’
artistic principals are based on scientific theory of color; and George’s art
is based on mathematics of sound and color.
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| The work in progress: Dot & Company Photo by Daren Scott |
Many theatergoers are confused by the musical’s abrupt disconnect between
the acts and fail to admire the piece as a total, moving investigation into,
and celebration of, the singular, obsessive, artistic process, and a
constructive exhortation and celebration of the challenge faced by those who
live on the periphery of an artist’s inability to connect. Somewhere in the
vastness of Act Two’s eternity Dot gets it, and somewhere, as well, George
realizes the vastness of artistic possibilities at his fingertips. That’s why
the second act is so vital to the whole.
There’s no rake in this auditorium, so plan to arrive early
to select a seat with an unobstructed view. The stage is elevated. The musical
is accompanied by two grand pianos, house right, one manned by Danisovszky, the
other by the excellent Daniel James Greenbush. Kudos to the company for clean
diction and to the un-credited sound designer and sound operator Spencer Lynn
for the cleanest sound ever in this auditorium, at least from my front row seat
far house left, where noise from the restaurant outside the doors occasionally
intruded. I just chalked it up to murmurs from the river.
Other designers are projections designer Blake McCarty; costume designer Janet Turner Pitcher; lighting designer Christopher Loren Renda; and scenic designer Matt Scott.
Sunday in the Park
with George: continues through July 16; Tues @ 7pm;
Thurs & Fri @8pm; Sat @ 2pm and 8pm; Sun @ 2pm. Actual dates are: Fri July
2, 2pm & 8pm; Sun July 3, 2pm; Tues July 5,
7pm; Thurs July 7, 8pm; Fri July 8, 8pm;
Sat July 9, 2pm & 8pm; Sun July 10, 2pm; Tues July 12, 7pm; Thu July14,
8pm; Fri July 15, 8pm; Sat July 16 2pm & 8pm.
Where – The James S. Copley Auditorium at
The San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, San Diego, CA, 92101
Tickets – General Admission: $45; Senior
(60+): $35; Military: $35; Student: $35. Discounts
available for ion and SDMA members. www.iontheatre.com or (619) 600-5020.
The Fringe and I Sputter Out
Saturday morning, I took an internationally aware friend to
see Bin Laden: The One Man Show, knowing
how much he would appreciate what I consider the finest of the Fringe. He did.
And I enjoyed seeing the well-researched, terrifying piece again, coming away
with an even greater understanding of its intent and the threat we still face
on a daily basis. Today in Baghdad. This week in Istanbul and Bangladesh.
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| Samuel Redway as Bin Laden Photo courtesy SD Fringe Festival |
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