Sunday in the Park...George - ACT II

I can understand these criticisms but Sunday is my favorite show of all time.

yours is a commonly held belief, at least regarding the structure. Many would disagree about the music though.

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People can disagree about the music. This should be an open forum. I like the music in the second act when just listening to it. But once the second act dialogue is combined with it, I don't think it is as good as Act I.

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It's a great concept, but it just always seemed underdeveloped to me. I know it won the pulitzer and all that, and it's probably one of his best scores. I love the overall sound and the transitions are both visually and musically stunning.

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Whether seeing it live or watching the video of the original, I always find it difficult to stay awake through the "Children and Art" scene.

Both acts are beautiful to me, but the second act has an entirely different dramatic spine in my opinion. The first act is not an existential play, the second act is. I think that's jarring, and there are things that are not quite understandable about it except through emotion, but I absolutely love this show.

I admit that some of the doubling doesn't seem very well thought out (but why should it be? Is it actually in the script as to which cast member should play which two roles?) And, I'll also admit, it does seem kinda thrown together. And yet...

The show simply wouldn't have half the emotional weight it does for me, without it. Act I has many moving moments--and yes, the Act I finale is very viscerally moving. But I find its reprise at Act II even more so--thematically it just ties everything together. I remember hearing that for a long time the workshop wasn't working, until very near the end of its public run, Sondheim wrote Lesson #8 and I believe Children and Art (though it may have been Move On), and suddenly everything seemed to click--including making Act I have even more resonance.

But as mentioned, there are still many who see it (as well as ITW's Act II which also may feel a tad structureless after how well Act I is put together--but that seems by design) as adding nothing to perfect first acts. So it's not a rare thought.

(When I was a teen, always trying to get my mom into Sondheim, she remembers I'd watch Sunday constantly, and she'd watch bits--like the opening when Bernadette's dress opens up--and find it just kinda weird and annoying, until one day she sat down and watched Act II just as it was starting, and she was floored. She then wanted to watch the whole thing together, and it's now probably her favorite Sondheim show.)

We were discussion intermissionless shows--and while Sunday could never work without one (and it would cause the audience to be very restless to sit through such a long show that changes so sharply), I do think maybe some new audiences are thrown and maybe even impatient with Act II when they return after Act I expecting something more linear and traditional--I dunno, like Georges tracking down Dot in America and reuniting (who needs art!).

I think the score to SUNDAY is indeed gorgeous, but it is the one Sondheim work that tries my patience in every other way. So it's hard to be an artist? Who's holding the gun to your head? Go become a tailor instead.

Yes, Eric, I saw the workshop when it was only Act I: an hour-and-a-half of waiting for actors to make the Seurrat painting. The La Jolla Pageant of the Masters does the same thing in a few minutes.

I don't know what Act II added (other than a few more lovely songs and a few, genuine laughs in "Hot Up Here"), but people were heckling the chromolume (or whatever's it's called) from the balcony on opening night. Which would have been closing night were it not for Frank Rich's personal crusade to save the show and canonize Stephen Sondheim.

I'm know you're right about ITW, Eric, and I feel sure you're right about SUNDAY as well in terms of the second act being the point. But my objection to Sunday's first act (either alone or in tandem with the second act) isn't that it is tightly constructed, but that it telegraphs its ending.

Perhaps that's inevitable: we see the pieces of the Seurrat painting, so of course we know that they must eventually come together. But nothing in SUNDAY ever distracts me from that fact.

With ITW, on the other hand, yes, I know how the fairy tales end, but the writing encourages me to suspend my disbelief so that I'm never sure if they will end correctly in the show's Act I.

And while I think Act II of ITW is overly long (I still think Sondheim misses Prince in terms of editing), at least it has action. What are they doing in Act II of SUNDAY but waiting to sing "Move On"?--a phrase I've been repeating since the 10-minute mark of Act I.

Eric, it isn't you who is unclear, it is I.

My point isn't that I know they'll make the painting. I know and they do, so my expectations are fulfilled.

BUT nothing else is going on, IMO, other than smug George using his work as an excuse to be a jerk to Dot. The only interesting thing in Act I is that she finally comes to her senses and runs off with a baker (foreshadowing ITW, I suppose).

And Act II is even less.

(I'll shut up now, because I know a lot of people here love the show. And I certainly love the CD.)

Updated On: 8/31/12 at 09:14 PM

When everyone sings "Forever" and bows to George - That is my favorite moment in all of musical theater. It says so much about art, respect for the artist, immortality in art, so many thing...

It makes me tear up just thinking of it.

JB, I think that's what Eric meant: that in both SUNDAY and ITW the first act's primary purpose is to set up the second act, which is the heart of each show.

In SUNDAY, I just don't like either act, despite some beautiful songs.