Sunday in the Park...George - ACT II — Page 2

While I truly prefer the first act and think it could be a really strong stand-alone piece (like how, if they were disconnected, the first act of INTO THE WOODS works as it's own show), I love "Move On" and "Putting It Together."

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Seeing the show twice at Playwrights and then again on Broadway and watching those magnificent songs being added to the second act--"Children and Art," Move On" and the Sunday reprise--was like watching two geniuses put together a masterpiece. They were putting it together, inch by inch, ounce by ounce, bit by bit.

Seeing it did not seem like going to the theater. It seemed like a privilege. It seemed like witnessing the birth of something extraordinary.

It seemed like witnessing a birth.

I read these whiny, kvetchy posts about it not being this or that and I just laugh. Actually, I feel sorry for those posters.

Go ahead. Dislike it. It's your loss.

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"Go ahead. Dislike it. It's your loss."

My loss was the time I spent watching this pretentious bore.

If AfterEight ever went missing, the surefire way to lure him back in is to create a Sondheim post, particularly one full of praise. It's like a crow and shiny objects.

I really don't think the first act DOES work as a stand-alone piece. While I do think, to a degree, it's the better-formed half (probably because, simply, while the second act was being created the first half was only being refined), it needs the second act to be successful. While the Act I finale is a great and moving moment, it's missing the catharsis that's supplied by Act II.

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Without Act II, Act I is a slightly too long, charming novelty show, IMHO. (I don't find it too long with Act II, mind you, as it sets up--at least thematically much of that, but without Act II, big chunks would have no emotional payoff).

That was not contempt. That was pity.

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I'm not a cultist Sondheim "fanatic." I have problems with several of his shows, most recently (and very vocally) "Follies," which aside from its brilliant score, I think is a disaster of an idea, maudlin, clueless (nobody thinks or behaves like this at any reunion), self-pitying, and even badly written. I feel only repelled by the characters. Nothing to root for or relate to. They're spoiled, narcissistic, petty, and truly boring. But the songs as individual numbers are minor masterpieces. Some of his best work. The parts definitely are better than the (dreadful) whole, in this case.

But "Sunday in the Park with George" is one of my favorite musicals ever written, and time has only made my feelings for it grow.

Yes, it's possible for a "non-cultish" non-Sondhead theatergoer to absolutely love this show and praise it highly. I don't love it "for the sake of Sondheim" or anybody else. I love it because of what it has to say about the creation of art and other people's connection to it, and how beautifully and brilliantly it conveys those ideas and feelings.

But I do agree with you about one thing: I don't need anybody "pitying the fools" who don't feel the way I do about something.

And if PJ can't see how snobbish and irritating these remarks are when people don't "get it" the way he does about some show or subject ... I, well, pity him.

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Updated On: 9/2/12 at 09:15 AM

^ That was actually pretty funny, Jacob!

May you someday lose this heavy chain you wear around your neck, forged in life, post by post ...


EDIT: Although, I am slightly disappointed you didn't work "The Last Midnight" into it somehow before you disappeared through the floor.

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Updated On: 9/2/12 at 09:43 AM

if you find them

LOL! That's funny.
I really mean them to be harmless. Although I do admit that the yawn was directed at AfterEights bs.