5th Avenue's 'Sunday in the Park with George'

The 5^th Avenue Theatre's production of "Sunday in the Park with George" proved what it says, "art isn't easy", mostly since they never quite achieved "art".  The production lacks the heart of the story that it so needs. 

The brilliant Stephen Sondheim show centers around the life of artist, George Seurat, and his model and lover, Dot, as he paints his masterpiece, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".  As George becomes more and more obsessed with his painting and "finishing the hat", Dot finds herself more and more disillusioned with the young painter until she finally decides to leave him for someone who will notice she's there.  This amazing work of Sondheim's is one of his most difficult and sophisticated pieces.  If you look at some of his other works, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Into the Woods" being his most accessible shows, "Assassins" being more of a political statement and "Sweeney Todd" as kind of a mood piece, "Sunday in the Park" is where he chose to stretch his boundaries a little and in turn redefined what musical theater at the time could be and made his audience work for it a little (especially in act two).  But the payoff of this work and investment (even in act two) should be worth it as the show, at it's core, is a love story and by the end of the show, they should have the hearts of the audience in their hands.  Unfortunately in this production, they did not. 

The performers on the stage are very talented, some of the best in the business.  Their voices are superb.  The problem I had was that none of them were connecting with each other on stage.  Especially the two leads.  Hugh Panaro as George and Billie Wildrick as Dot should have the audience weeping at the break up of their relationship.  But there was no connection and as there was no connection there were no stakes involved in the moment.  When she left, it was more of an episode of "The Bachelorette", "moving on to the next one."  We never felt the anguish that we should feel over the loss.  

Another thing that struck me about this production was the lack of the cast knowing where and when they were.  This is set in France in 1884 yet we had mostly American accents.  And most of those speech patterns were sounding very modern.  This show should draw you into this world through the painting and without that sense of where and when we were, then the situations don't mean as much.  An unwed mother today isn't considered an outcast, but back then she could have been in real danger.  I just didn't feel the urgency.  Consequentially, the song, "Move On" at the end of the show struck no emotional chords.  In fact as no one was connecting I wasn't even sure who they were singing about. 

This production relies quite heavily on a bit of technical wizardry inspired by the recent London production.  In the original production in 1984 they didn't have the technology we have now with animation and projection so the creation of the painting through out the show and the use of the "Chormolume" in the second act were done more with actual painted scrims and simple light.  But now we can project a moving and ever changing canvas on the walls of the set and create and amazing world that appears right before our eyes.  For the most part, this is stunning.  The experience of watching this familiar painting being created in front of us was quite lovely.  But like a kid with a new toy, the designers needed to know when to stop and let the story be told.  I specifically had issue with two uses of projection.  First the animated dogs in act one, were just plain distracting.  I found myself watching them more than listening to Panaro and the moment got lost.  And secondly, the projection of multiple George's in act two during "Putting it Together" watered down the song.  The song is about the frenetic world of trying to schmooze people at the art opening rather than worrying about creating art and without George jumping from conversation to conversation, that energy is gone.   The use of this new technique of projection can be used effectively to compliment a show as in the recent 5^th Avenue production of "Memphis" last year or the unfortunately short lived Broadway run of "A Catered Affair".  But in this case, it overpowered and became the show. 

All in all it was a nice show.  The visuals were amazing (if not overdone), the voices were wonderful and the orchestra was incredible (I would have to say the orchestra was the stand out in this production).  But let's not get caught in the gimmicks of telling the story and just tell it with the heart it can have.  Otherwise we might as well just have an evening of songs from "Sunday in the Park" and throw out this beautiful book. 

"Sunday in the Park with George" plays at The 5^th Avenue Theatre through May 10^th.  For tickets or information contact the box office at 206-625-1900 or toll-free at 888-5TH-4TIX or visit them online at www.5thavenue.org.

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