Sunday in the Park with George

I don't regret adding this to my collection. I just reduced it by one star. The set, the seamstresses who assembled the fabulous costumes, this was a day in the park for any and all artists, that is to say, who draw, paint, build sew, assemble . illuminate, record "artists". And nothing wrong with the singers. Bernadette shines in this one. Mandy is no slacker either. I personally prefer a baritone with a top A...but that'sjust a personal preference.But as one reviewer noted...no subtitles. Just because something is in the King's English...that does NOT mean that the words are very well spoken/sung by the players. This is indeed a major flaw...for some 30% of the story is muddled. But it doesn't matter much for the story is fatally flawed to begin with.My problem is that after listening for decades to music of a wide variety, including bel canto, folk, country, gospel...I said wide variety...I find I am becoming a more than weary of what could be called the "Broadway muscial motif".They have a way of sounding so very similar. It is hard to describe. I'll try this: that the melodies and tempi seem only barely able to emerge from recitative.Here is a sample of a tune from this show: C-D; C-D; C-A...and then we "vary" that monotony by ending on a 'wistful note'...C-D; CD; C-Ab...The melody bounces around sort of aimlessly...like the story line. I would not call it a libretto. A libretto has at least some shining star of a hero or heroine, and often both. Here "George" is made out to be obsessive compulsive( dot, dot, dot with his brush, get it? ); totally self absorbed, not even human...his lover and model has a child by him, and he doesn't even turn to look at it, but dismisses the both of them coldly. Does that sound heroic to you? It can only leave one ..uh...hating artists in general? Hating men in general? What are the writer and composer thinking?...are they both chronically cynical. Or wanting to be seen as "modern', or rather 'post modern' where there is no decency in humankind? Where we eschew anyting remotely like "prettiness"?It is said that a successful opera, or musical, should not only cause you to hum the melodies later...but to relish hearing them again and again...for decades, or in the case of bel canto...for 160 years and more ! And here we are required to pay our money-and receive instead of music, something close to penuriousness....cheap, stingy- regarding anything like an inventive, glorious, soaring emotive melodic line... or as Pagliaccio says in his beloved aria: "Le gente paga, y ridi vuole qua" -"The people pay, and laughter is what they want".I guess I am being unfairly critical. But when one's name is practically a household name...we expect extraordinary, don't we?Any composer devoted to his life's work...if you want to be remembered, it would help a great deal if said composer wrote music that the gentry would adore for generations...these notes in this paltry piece so randomly strung together , and sounding SO broadway musical...barely...is the best way I know of to be forgotten before you die.It will not be helpful to angrily denounce the gentry for failing to undersand your "genius". Just about any Italian opera will have you emerging from the performance dripping wet from your total immersion in music. It would seem that music, like paintings of the 20th century has become "shorthand"..scribblings, sketches on a napkin. To be thrown away. The real mystery is that there are( suckers ) gentry who are duped into paying a million dollars for one of those scribblings. No what's wrong with that picture?

Defective---Going to return this today. For $40 the dvd should play the movie, don't you think?? Found the movie on Youtube so I won't be replacing it.

One of the best most unusual most original heartbreakingly beautiful creations of modern mankind. Why oh why have they not reissued this? It was taped live for PBS and is absolutely the best way to experience this show if you were not there in person.

The story of _Sunday in the Park with George_ is unusually inaccessible for a Sondheim work. Unlike most of his mass-appeal pieces, such as _Phantom of the Opera_, this is a playwright's play. To be sure it's comprehensible by everyone, but I suspect those who would get the most out of it would be fellow artists. Far from being a plot driven work, this is the exploration of an idea, a work ethic, a raison d'etre.Inasmuch as there is a plot, it is the story of how art is produced. It is a struggle delivered against the backdrop of a single family's history. As we are shown each generation in the family, we discover how the struggle to produce great work often estranges loved ones, and how the need to be paid often alienates the artist from his own work.It is a fascinating ride, but it is all about character, details, subtle observation, and the angst of artistic creation. Some people don't like such work, so if you're one of these, you might want to rent before buying.However, if you're even slightly artistically inclined, you will come away from this story enriched. You will also find much to laugh about here. The work is full of interesting characters, and surprising character actors. Brent Spiner and Charles Kimbrough put in amusing performances before "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Murphy Brown" made them television stars.But I think the most fascinating thing about this work is its set design. I'm not sure I've ever seen a production with better use of scrim. The stage literally becomes an artist's canvas, with bits of scenery flying in and out as needed by Patinkin's character. It is a masterwork of design and anyone studying stagecraft has to make a stop here.Likewise, anyone interested in the business side of Broadway production will find the audio commentary on the DVD especially intriguing. Hearing how the production came together is entirely instructive. Also, there aren't too many DVD audio commentaries which include major actors, so the presence of Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters here is altogether welcome. Perhaps because there was such a time gap between the play and the audio commentary (more than ten years), the participants have had time to think about the experience and put it in historical perspective. As a result, this audio commentaries is one of the very best I've yet encountered on DVD.It may be more interesting than the play itself.

I could not play this as received a copy for USA usage only . Bought it for present and just found out we couldn't play it on British TV

Sondheim at his best.

Stephen Sondheim is a musical genius. If you doubt this statement, have a look at Sunday in the Park with George. The controlled emotion of the first act is wonderful and the climax at the end of the act brings all the musical themes together. The musical mirrors the painting in its construction: themes mirroring dots. Cleverer than I can fully understand.The second act is not quite as good, but again comes together at the end in a moment that always moves me to tears. Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are just outstanding.

This is one of Sondheim's best, I think. The story, lyrics, performances are all exactly and wonderfully right. I have watched this over and over again and always find something new to see and hear. The commentary by the director James Lapine, Sondheim, Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is entertaining, illuminating and give a glimpse of the creative team behind the production and the creative process that brought this show to the stage. Love this. I'm so glad I bought it. I even bought the music CD so I could listen to it in the car! Some musicals are very pretty and have nice music, but very few have the depth and intricate lyrics that Sondheim's do, and that's why he is the best.

An amazing show perhaps Sondheim's best. Aside from Patinkin and Peters, some of Broadway's best perform a touching, funny and deeply thoughtful musical. A musing on art and the life of an artist, Sunday in the Park With George tackles the issues of balance between the calling of one's muse and the real world demands of people who need and love the artist. It shows the parallels experienced by artists through time all to some of the best music ever written.