State of the Arts
Sunday in the Park George is colorful musical written by James Lapine with music written by the world-renowned Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based around the 19th century Impressionist George Seurat’s painting from 1884, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. A rendition of this outstanding musical was recently playing over the past three months on the Guthrie Theater’s Wurtele Thrust Stage. The story revolves around Seurat himself along with a multitude of characters pictured in his aforementioned famous painting. The most notable being Dot, the female lead and romantic interest of Seurat in the production. George and Dot—played by Randy Harrison and Erin Mackey respectively— were enjoyably dynamic leads in this particular production. The two’s performances complemented each other exceptionally well and …show more content…
Then the two come together for a beautiful, yet heart-wrenching moment in “We Do Not Belong Together” which leaves the audience speechless as the tension and sorrowful tone the scene resonates throughout the theater. Unfortunately, it felt as though only their remarkable performances were what carried the weight of the show. While those in supporting roles did a fine job, none of their performances particularly stood out to warrant much attention from the audience. Their strongest moments were, as expected, those which were performed by the entire company, specifically “It’s Hot Up Here”. This piece is striking namely for is use of overlapping individual lines to create harmonies, however, it is for this same reason that this piece can easily become a cacophony of incoherent voices. Nevertheless the Guthrie’s cast rose to the occasion beginning Act II with a lovely fusion of unity and harmony. With that said I would have loved to see that same strength and energy applied to their individual roles. I say this chiefly in regards to the performance of the Soldier's Companion. Even considering that the character is mute, the role
Sunday in the Park George is colorful musical written by James Lapine with music written by the world-renowned Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based around the 19th century Impressionist George Seurat’s painting from 1884, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. A rendition of this outstanding musical was recently playing over the past three months on the Guthrie Theater’s Wurtele Thrust Stage. The story revolves around Seurat himself along with a multitude of characters pictured in his aforementioned famous painting. The most notable being Dot, the female lead and romantic interest of Seurat in the production. George and Dot—played by Randy Harrison and Erin Mackey respectively— were enjoyably dynamic leads in this particular production. The two’s performances complemented each other exceptionally well and …show more content…
Then the two come together for a beautiful, yet heart-wrenching moment in “We Do Not Belong Together” which leaves the audience speechless as the tension and sorrowful tone the scene resonates throughout the theater. Unfortunately, it felt as though only their remarkable performances were what carried the weight of the show. While those in supporting roles did a fine job, none of their performances particularly stood out to warrant much attention from the audience. Their strongest moments were, as expected, those which were performed by the entire company, specifically “It’s Hot Up Here”. This piece is striking namely for is use of overlapping individual lines to create harmonies, however, it is for this same reason that this piece can easily become a cacophony of incoherent voices. Nevertheless the Guthrie’s cast rose to the occasion beginning Act II with a lovely fusion of unity and harmony. With that said I would have loved to see that same strength and energy applied to their individual roles. I say this chiefly in regards to the performance of the Soldier's Companion. Even considering that the character is mute, the role