SUNDAY Reviews- Page 2

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 9:52pm

Positive from the AP:

"And sing they do - quite wonderfully - at Studio 54 where the Roundabout Theatre Company has opened a stunning revival of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical.

"Sunday" is Sondheim's most personal score, an artful juggling of the cerebral and the emotional, a delicate balancing act perfectly captured here in a production that first earned cheers at a tiny London theatre in 2005.

The projections bring a fluidity to the revival, a brushstroke ease of movement that suggests the act of putting paint on canvas. But they would be only empty motion if the performances surrounding them were not compelling.

Fortunately, Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell are as fine as their starry predecessors in interpreting the obsessed painter and the woman who can't compete with his fierce artistic vision."

http://jam.canoe.ca/Theatre/2008/02/21/4866832-ap.html


4 (out of 4) stars from USA Today:

"In this London-based revival of Sunday(* * * * out of four), which opened Thursday at Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54, animated and projected images grant us further access to the inspiration and aspirations behind the imagined George's creative process and that of the great-grandson who shares his name.

It's in the second act that we meet the second George, also an artist, as well as his grandmother Marie, the product of the first George's relationship with his long-suffering mistress and model, the playfully named Dot. Lapine's tart libretto and Sondheim's witty, rapturous score focus on the two ambitious, tormented artists and the women who, in very different ways, love and frustrate them.

Both Georges are played by the same actor, while one actress juggles the two women. The superb Daniel Evans makes clear the generational distinctions between the Georges while linking their obsessive, narcissistic tendencies, and making them sympathetic nonetheless. Jenna Russell, a sassy, sensual Dot, is funny, touching and completely convincing as the 98-year-old but still-wily Marie. Buntrock also culls lovely supporting performances from Michael Cumpsty, Jessica Molaskey, Mary Beth Peil and others."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2008-02-21-sunday-park_N.htm


Positive from the Financial Times:

"The new actors - including Michael Cumpsty and Alexander Gemignani - discharge their duties splendidly. And Drew McVety seems to relish playing a baker named Louis, whom everyone loves and who has been seen as Sondheim's send-up of rival Broadway composers such as Jerry Herman.

Russell's Dot - Seurat's mistress - is neither as lyrically powerful nor as funny as Bernadette Peters was in 1984 but affecting just the same, especially as the elderly Marie in act two. Evans gives both his Seurat and Seurat's great-grandson a heart-catching flair: a genuine sense of the characters' belief in "so many possibilities". A final note: I have nothing but praise for the 3-D projections and I look forward to seeing a production of Sunday in which they play all the parts."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1922cf84-e0e8-11dc-b0d7-0000779fd2ac.html

[ashley0139]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:05pm

My most anticipated show of the year. I cannot wait!

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:06pm

Thanks for the link to the video. Fun to see this cast with the British cast recording. :)

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:16pm

Okay, so maybe COMPANY isn't as well-thought of as I thought. I was drawing from my experience with other Sondheads that I know.

Sorry 'bout that.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:20pm

Word of Mouth is Positive:

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=561069

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:21pm

Talkin' Broadway is a Steaming Negative:

Everything is cold: the setting (by David Farley, who also designed the costumes) of all-white, watch-your-step gallery; the performances, particularly from imported British leads Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell; and even the orchestra, pared down and spiritlessly weaving its way through Sondheim's potentially passionate score. Absent that heat, this musical is not guaranteed to leave you "sweating by a river," as a lyric goes, but fighting off the natural chill of the two men at its center who are so consumed with work that they have no time for the disbelievers surrounding them - however close.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/SundayPark.html

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:22pm

Murray doesn't seem to like much of anything...

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:23pm

No way, that can't be! Talkin' Broadway is NEVER negative! I'm shocked.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:23pm

He liked "Pirate Queen", didn't he?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:23pm

Wow. I always knew that Murray didn't like many shows, but this just proves that he's lacking more than a few brain cells.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:23pm

And the New York Times is an Orgasmic Rave:

“Look!” says the man for whom seeing is everything, in a voice that both commands and beseeches. “Look!”

This directive is issued by the painter Seurat, played by Daniel Evans in the glorious revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Sunday in the Park With George,” which opened Thursday night at Studio 54. And even if George’s mother, to whom he is ostensibly speaking, pays him no mind, we certainly do.

How could we not look at the rhapsody of images that keeps unfolding before us? Directed by Sam Buntrock, this production uses 21st-century technology to convey the vision of a 19th-century Pointillist to truly enchanting effect.

But in “Sunday in the Park With George,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1985, looking involves much more than registering what’s pretty, what’s shocking, what’s new. The great gift of this production, first staged in London two years ago, is its quiet insistence that looking is the art by which all people shape their lives.

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/theater/reviews/22geor.html

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:24pm

Yay. Nice to see Mary Beth, Jessica Molaskey, and Michael Cumpsty are already getting positive recognition.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:41pm

Very pleased about the NYTimes review!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 10:52pm

Wow! Somebody's been feeding Ben Brantley happy pills lately. Or something...

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:25pm

Murray holds absolutely no weight as a critic, he's just an internet critic.

I'm so glad Brantley loved it. And I'm so glad he recognized Peil, Molaskey, and Cumpsty - like the other critics have.

[jv92]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:28pm

Murray has got to be the biggest jackass in the world.
Thank you Ben for getting this one right. I knew you would.
I'm thrilled with the other reviews. Old Man Barnes' review will likely be possitive because the production photos for this show are of high quality and that's basically what he writes his reviews on.

[thinggoes]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:39pm

I must admit that the main reason I read Talkin Broadway now is to see how far into left field Matthew Murray goes to analyze and "support" his reviews. The extraneous and rather preposterous conclusions he comes up with, and the pretentiousness that he presents, just make me laugh out loud most of the time.

PS. Did you like my pretentious write-up?

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:42pm

I'm still interested in finding out what is so bohemian and gay about George! :)

[Testing1232]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:47pm

Thank goodness the Times is a rave !!! Totally deserved !

[EugLoven]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:49pm

As if we didn't already know this was going to be a dead-ringer.
BRAVO! BRAVO! to all and everyone.
What a wonderful world it is, to have "Sunday" back, isn't it?

Posted: 2/21/08 at 11:57pm

i'm so thrilled for everyone involved...including us!

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 2/22/08 at 12:02am

Murray is a asshole, who holds no actual power in the review pool.

Glad this production and it's stars are getting the praise they deserve.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/22/08 at 12:07am

The Star Ledger is positive.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2008/02/the_musical_version_of_sunday.html

"Sunday in the Park with George" still remains light-years ahead of every musical currently running on Broadway.

And another rave for Peil.

but among a large featured ensemble the most notable work comes from Mary Beth Peil, who's initially cranky then haunting as Seurat's fretful, fading mother.

Updated On: 2/22/08 at 12:07 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/22/08 at 12:07am

. Updated On: 2/22/08 at 12:07 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/22/08 at 12:40am

Finkle from Theatermania is positive, but he still does not like the second act.

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12889

The result is a first-rate presentation of a loved and respected musical, which is further festooned with slick and touching performances by Evans and Russell, the only holdovers from the London staging.