The beauty of Sondheim's score to Sunday is that, like Georges, he is using pointillism to create art: the art of minimalist music is showcased by Sunday because of the complex and beautiful lyrics. You can HEAR Georges paint in "Color and Light". The songs are all related: In particular, "Move On" is an extension and development of "We Do not Belong Together", which is an extension and development of the lyrical section of "Color and Light", which can be found in the interlude of "Sunday In the Park With George". Rodgers never really developed off his other songs, they may be written in the same style, but they are much different. The best he does is reprise, which, as Gaveston pointed out, is wildly inappropriate in this show. What makes "Move On" cathartic and serve as a closure to the love story of George and Dot is that Sondheim manages to connect George to 19th France through music, which makes the reappearance of Dot not only more believable, but ultimately more moving.
As for Hammerstein, his lyrics are often wonderful, but he writes very poetically. The verse of Hammerstein would both undercut and diminish the power of Sunday. In particular, "Children and Art", one of the most moving songs ever written, would never register in waxy poetic verse, nor would "Lesson #8" (nor would the songs that, figuratively, Rodgers and Hammerstein would have written, I expect). Besides the point, Rodgers would have never agreed to write Sunday. After the failure of Allegro, he never experimented wildly again.
And why do we need a Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Sunday In the Park With George? With the tones of surrealism and artistic crisis, the show that LaPine wrote is already in Sondheim's voice and tone. As is Marie Christine with LaChiusa. Why ask for new versions of already existing shows. Especially when Sondheim and LaChiusa already did it better.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
