Sundry thoughts on Sunday in the Park with George

[my_daroga]

On Wednesday last, tkp and I saw 5th Avenue Theater's production of Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim (with Hugh Panaro, for all you Phantom fans). This was the version revived last year on Broadway (and I think before that in London) which utilized an entirely different mechanism for recreating "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La

Comments

[rahirah]

The PBS production has always been one of my favorites. This new one is interesting and technically impressive, but... I dunno, I think I prefer the original staging too.

[my_daroga]

I need to watch it again (and tkp, who hasn't seen it before, wants to too) to be sure. It was definitely interesting/worth it and obviously it's difficult to get a chance to see it live at all, but it was a little too much.

[kryss_labryn]

I've never seen any version before, but I have to say, as someone with a background in technical theatre, I find the new version very exciting, and it makes me wish I could have been involved in it in some way. I mean in the staging of it, because that really is incredible. It probably distracts from the story somewhat, because I am much less interested in the characters than I am in seeing if, for example, grass appears around the dog when he's talking about sketching more in, and I can't help but admire the timing required to film someone topping off his own glass, and find myself wondering how long it took to film it all, which means I'm concentrating on the effects rather than the story. Still, I find it a technical marvel and would really like to see it, where the story itself probably wouldn't absorb me all that much (although I'm sure I'd enjoy it if I saw it; it's just that I probably wouldn't seek it out on my own for its own sake).

TL;DR: Cool. XD

[my_daroga]

A few things:

1. It's *never* TL;DR!
2. It wasn't the "story" that absorbed me, it was the themes, but I see your point
3. It was fascinating, the technology and staging. It's hard to talk about, because it was really marvelous and cool and I couldn't argue with the idea behind it, or the execution. (I don't remember grass appearing around the dog, but I was far away.) The timing, the versatility, and all that was really impressive. So it was worth it for me to see it, and it was worth it because I love the play. But if I had to choose a set that better served the text (for me), I'd have to chose the one without animation. For the distraction, and for the simple reason that it meshes with the 2-D painting effect.