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

The production of the video of the show is very good. Lapine gets some good shots, even though it's basically a taped version of a Broadway show. The editing in spots is very good.

Bernadette Peters, a favorite performer of mine, is not in very good voice for the taping. I think I've read that she was having vocal problems at the time. Some dubbing is apparent in spots. Mr. Patinkin is very subdued and subtle in his performance.

The DVD is a preferable way to watch this show due to its extra audio track of Sondheim, Lapine, Peters and Patinkin reminiscing about it. There are some great stories told by the group. Mr. Sondheim sheds some light on the earlier drafts of songs and scenes.

Remember, this show won the Pulitzer Prize! It is not an "Oklahoma" kind of musical -- it's very artsy and concerns a difficult man obsessed with his art. But it is so sweet and clever. Like Seurat's famous painting that the musical is based on, the stellar talent behind the show blend together to produce a truly luminescent experience.


So many things to love!   October 30, 2004
 17 out of 19 found this review helpful

As someone who did not see the original production of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, I am more grateful for this film of the stage play than I can possibly express. Although both Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin have both enjoyed fine careers in film and television in addition to their stage work, their best work has been on stage, and by the nature of the medium, it has been more or less lost to us. This performance captures them doing what they do best. It is ironic that with the semi-rebirth of the film musical in recent years, there has been no attempt to do so with Patinkin, the premiere musical stage performer of the past thirty years. Here he is a marvel, crafting songs with vocals stylings of an inconceivable range.

Sondheim's score is a thing of glory. Unlike many previous composers, Sondheim was concerned with making each song an organic part of the work as a whole. They don't stand alone, but absolutely require their setting in the rest of the musical. It is as if Sondheim wanted to make it impossible for any of them to be excerpted. Yet, each one is utterly remarkable, stamped with the highest possible craft and talent. What sets Sondheim's art apart from his fellow composers is the brilliance of his arrangements. He clearly has invested as much effort in arranging the music as he has in crafting the lyrics and writing the initial music. The arrangements are so hypnotic that at times I actually had to listen twice to a couple of musical numbers because I realized that I had failed to listen to the lyrics. The effect of the brilliant songs, the extraordinary performances, and the astonishing arrangements is absolutely breathtaking.

The cast is beyond reproach, with numerous stellar performances beyond those by Patinkin and Peters. Barbara Byrne, Dana Ivey, Charles Kimbrough, and many others perform their roles to perfection. Interestingly, shortly after the run of the musical was over, two of the cast members went on to major television stardom: Charles Kimbrough stood out as Jim Dial in MURPHY BROWN while Brent Spiner created one of the most beloved characters in television history as Data in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

In general, I have a low opinion of the stage musical. Most of them are more glitter and surface than substance, with superficially appealing music. SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, however, is one of the grand exceptions. The word "genius" is thrown around far too often, but it can be applied here with no impropriety.


"Pretty isn't beautiful. Pretty is what changes...   January 8, 2000
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

'Beautiful does not...'

This is more than a pretty play. There is a significance, sophistication and depth in this musical that goes well beyond what you would expect. Every time I have had the opportunity to catch this musical on HBO or PBS I have taken it - it has been well worth seeking out.

This story is a complete work of fiction that centres around the life of the painter. It's not really about the painter, or about the painting. It's about art. It's about the art of making art. It's about the search for significance and meaning to our lives. It's about connecting with the world around you. It's about living life for all it's worth, with all you've got, and not settling for the mediocre or second-best. It's about standing back from the dots that make up our lives and looking how it all fits together, allowing the perspective (or lack) fall into its proper place.

This DVD is worth obtaining for two reasons. First, you WILL want to watch this over and over, and review it from time to time. Because you have changed between viewings, the play will say different things to you. Second is the commentary with James Lapine who wrote the libretto, Stephen Sondheim who scored the music, and Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. There are times where the commentary goes completely quiet, which is sometimes confusing (I would have preferred if they spoke through the whole thing, and I can't tell if the recording equipment failed to record some parts, or if they were really silent. This is a minor complaint, and I'm still very happy to have this DVD.)

I have recommended this movie to many friends, of different backgrounds, and with a few exceptions most have come away with many reasons (often different from my own) as to why they enjoyed and were touched by the play.


Great!!...But OHHH that Mandy Patinkin!!   August 13, 2002
 9 out of 16 found this review helpful

"Sunday in the Park with George" is one of Stephen Sondheim's most challenging works. Its complex plotting and musicalization continually hits the viewer with the unexpected. Not surprisingly, that resulted in a controversial and often disparaged Broadway production in 1984. This video reclaims the values of this seminal work, while also highlighting what went wrong with it. The common theory is that the second act just didn't work, and that the show's logical conclusion was at the end of act one. While the second act clearly had some misguided ideas (that Chromolume business is now just so much dated camp), it ultimately brought the strands of story to their logical conclusions, and the reappearance of Dot (Bernadette Peters) in the final scene was beautifully magnanimous (as was Peters' exquisite performance). The score of this show is both soaring and perplexing, at times so fussy with itself that it overtaxes the listener and you lose interest. Still, songs like "Finishing the Hat", "Children and Art", "Everybody Loves Louis" and the gorgeous "Sunday" rank among Sondheim's best. The cast is mostly exceptional, especially Peters in her most challenging role. While she appears to have had some vocal problems in the making of this video, her acting is rich and giving, and her Dot is the emotional centerpiece of the show. Other supporting players manage to make their turns vividly memorable, especially Babara Bryne as the mother, Dana Ivey as the rival painter's wife, and Charles Kimbrough as the rival painter. You connect with these characters' complexities and forgive their failings.

That said, it must be noted that Mandy Patinkin is the destructive force here. He gives his usual, dour, completely over-the-top performance (some of his ridiculous facial expressions have to be seen to be believed), making this George a completely unlikeable, self-centered jerk. Come to think of it, that's exactly how Patinkin comes across in the audio commentary he does with Sondheim, Peters and director James Lapine. He repeatedly interrupts the others, interprets their work (and even their comments) for them, and changes the subject back to himself at the drop of a paintbrush. Amusingly, you can actually detect the frustration of the other three as he goes on again about something or other, making the kind of grandiose, sentimentally "intellectual" statements about his work typical of a self-involved ACTOR. At one point, Sondheim even refers to the pleasure Patinkin is taking in looking at himself on the screen. It's actually rather funny to hear the more down-to-earth Peters deflate some of Patinkin's highfallutin observations with her more objective, direct comments. One wishes we could hear more of her views rather than his blather, but none of them seems to be able to shut Patinkin up. He's insufferable. The penultimate moment occurs when Patinkin, who repeatedly refers to his crying spells during the run of the show (OKAY....we get it Mandy....you're a SENSITIVE ARTISTE), bursts into audible tears as the video concludes, skillfully stealing the final moment while reinforcing his wonderfulness. It's an obnoxious performance (both his acting AND his commentary) that will more than likely repel many viewers from a repeat visit. How unfortunate, because "Sunday in the Park..." is truly a worthwhile effort from the preeminent Broadway composer of the last 40 years. It deserves to have a life beyond this production, and beyond Patinkin's overbearing narcissism. You're not the show, Mandy. Please, take the day off!


Beautiful   October 5, 2004
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

In the theatre SUNDAY baffled some, and enthralled others. The TV version (taped the week after the show closed in the Booth theatre where it played for 604 performances) is a beautiful transfer from stage to(small)screen.

The sensitive performances, the delicate orchestrations, Tony Staiges Tony Award winning scenery, James Lapine's Pulitzer prize winning writing and Stephen Sondheim's deceptively beautiful score all combine to make this something very special.

Perhaps a little too special: SUNDAY lost the 1984 Tony award to LA CAGE AUX FOLLES - an enjoyable yet conventional musical comedy (HELLO DOLLY! in drag) - and most of the initial reviews were unfavourable. But the show had its supporters and continued to attract audiences and even some of the critics who disliked the show at first later reversed or at least "clarified" their opinions.

Truth be told, SUNDAY is a rich piece and it is just not possible to penetrate all its layers in a single vieweing.

The DVD allows viewers a chance to study, to consider, and yes, even question both the show and the painting that inspired it. Is that really a baby carriage? Why a monkey? How is the flower in the hat made to have such a shimmering violet color?

The show contains sequences that do not in any way resemble standard musical theatre: The long number "The Day off" or even more startling, "It's Hot Up Here!" are in no way "standard" showtunes in 4/4 time. If anything, it is actually more like a chamber opera, but then labels are irrelevant.

SUNDAY tells a tale of artistic creation. The artist makes many sacrifices in his quest to "finish the hat." This DVD makes the case exceptionally well, with a fascinating commentary by Sondheim, Lapine, Peters and Patinkin. Yes, Mandy is a hyper person and he does try to dominate the proceedings but Sondheim corrects him on some facts -politely but firmly - and in spite of it all you sense that all four look back on their time creating the show as a very special time in their lives and remain enormously proud of their accomplishment.