Another night at the Guthrie!
Thanks to my set-designing colleague, i scored an invitation to the final dress rehearsal of Sunday in the Park With George last night. It's a music of which i've been aware for years and years, because of a few specific iconic costume challenges that people often discuss/brainstorm/critique (Spoilers/list thereof down in footnote [1]), but i've never seen it.
To be honest, i see why it doesn't get produced much. The songs are unmemorable but it's yet another musical in which an emotionally abusive relationship is held up as an epic, tragic romance. Seurat's story is interesting in the sense that i'd like to read a biography of him, but it hasn't made for a good musical.
But that's all basic criticism of the show itself, and with that as an initial caveat, the production at the Guthrie is fine. The voices are good, the clothes are what they need to be (since they're dictated by the painting), there are some funny moments. The second act takes place in 1984, which was the contemporary time when the show came out but which has since become a different period in itself and it was interesting to see how that was treated in terms of style choices for the different characters.
It wasn't a waste of an evening, but it's not a musical i'd choose to see again. It was in a different theatre within the Guthrie than the play i saw last week, so it was cool to see that space and how it differs from the first. And, i got to eat a second dinner at the fantastic restaurant on the first floor so that's nice. It was also cool to see the epic views from the theatre-level lobby/bar, so i took some more pictures.
[1] SPOILERS: There's a bustle dress that opens like a cabinet for the wearer to step out of it and walk around in the very first number, there's another bustle skirt later in the show which turns around into a pregnancy belly, and there are several parasols which can't be cut because they are mentioned in song lyrics and present in the George Seurat painting from which this essentially-ekphrastic music is derived. I get that the original design for the show called for all of these things, but in the intervening years i've thought of other ways to solve the challenges of those moments in the show (not the parasols, but the trick bustles) and i don't know that they're even necessary beyond that they are i suppose expected now.
To be honest, i see why it doesn't get produced much. The songs are unmemorable but it's yet another musical in which an emotionally abusive relationship is held up as an epic, tragic romance. Seurat's story is interesting in the sense that i'd like to read a biography of him, but it hasn't made for a good musical.
But that's all basic criticism of the show itself, and with that as an initial caveat, the production at the Guthrie is fine. The voices are good, the clothes are what they need to be (since they're dictated by the painting), there are some funny moments. The second act takes place in 1984, which was the contemporary time when the show came out but which has since become a different period in itself and it was interesting to see how that was treated in terms of style choices for the different characters.
It wasn't a waste of an evening, but it's not a musical i'd choose to see again. It was in a different theatre within the Guthrie than the play i saw last week, so it was cool to see that space and how it differs from the first. And, i got to eat a second dinner at the fantastic restaurant on the first floor so that's nice. It was also cool to see the epic views from the theatre-level lobby/bar, so i took some more pictures.
[1] SPOILERS: There's a bustle dress that opens like a cabinet for the wearer to step out of it and walk around in the very first number, there's another bustle skirt later in the show which turns around into a pregnancy belly, and there are several parasols which can't be cut because they are mentioned in song lyrics and present in the George Seurat painting from which this essentially-ekphrastic music is derived. I get that the original design for the show called for all of these things, but in the intervening years i've thought of other ways to solve the challenges of those moments in the show (not the parasols, but the trick bustles) and i don't know that they're even necessary beyond that they are i suppose expected now.
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