Posts tagged sunday in the park with george

youregonnalovetomorrow | youregonnalovetomorrow:

We Do Not Belong Together - Sunday in the Park with George

Why this wasn’t on youtube is beyond me. Fixed it.

Go forward into this video and there you will find brilliance.

WATCH IT. JUST FUCKING WATCH IT.

youregonnalovetomorrow

so-theres-hell-to-pay

I want to see something…

I want to know if it’s the music or because of what I know is happening in the scene.

Anyone who hasn’t seen Sunday in the Park with George, or at least hasn’t in a very long time, and is in the mood to listen to some gorgeous music (a piano solo interpreting a Sondheim piece), please click this link and tell me if you’re feeling even the slightest emotion by the time you pass the 1:24 mark in the song.

Inigo Montoya Duel Polystone Statue WAAANT! Though, considering the pose he’s in… I’d probably pay someone to change it and turn it into Mandy as George Seurat instead. And then I’d print out an appropriately-sized copy of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte to go with it. Might even add a paintbrush and palette into his hands for kicks. /Broadway nerd

Inigo Montoya Duel Polystone Statue

WAAANT! Though, considering the pose he’s in… I’d probably pay someone to change it and turn it into Mandy as George Seurat instead. And then I’d print out an appropriately-sized copy of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte to go with it. Might even add a paintbrush and palette into his hands for kicks.

/Broadway nerd

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

240 plays

fuckyeahstephensondheim:

“Sunday” from the Wall to Wall Sondheim concert

Arranged by Jason Robert Brown

A while back JRB blogged about his take on the song, including a PDF of the score to his arrangement. If you’ve ever wondered what an arranger does, or more generally why different renditions of familiar songs might feel different to you, his post should help clear things up.

I started reading his blog post while I was in the middle of listening to this and near the end, I thought “Yikes, the ladies sound… off.” And then 15 seconds later I’m reading JRB’s apology for having written down the ladies’ notes in that section wrong. haha

fuckyeahstephensondheim

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

ohrochester:

Or, two examples of Stephen Sondheim’s lyrical greatness in one song:

(Backstory: Bernadette Peters plays an ex-lover of George Seurat, and here tells him, shortly after their breakup, why she just loves her new boyfriend, a baker named Louis.)

And then in bed, George

I mean, he kneads me —

I mean like dough, George …

The comedy loses a little when you read it, since the kneeds/needs jokes doesn’t really land aurally until the next line.

And then, later in the same song:

Everybody gets along with him.

That’s the trouble,

Nothing’s wrong with him …

Critic Ethan Mordden called this “the greatest character damnation in all of Sondheim.” Louis is nice and sweet and popular…but he’s just plain ordinary.

ohrochester