Topic Sunday In The Park With... from the General Chit-Chat forum.
Post a reply or begin a new topic.
View other threads or jump to a different forum.
| Author | Topic: Sunday In The Park With... |
|---|
Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 6/2/2006 at 5:03:38 PM ET
I have such a guilty admission to pass on to anyone here who might be remotely interested ... I have to admit that I've just given in and seen the new and innovative West End production of Sunday In The Park With George and it is just mind-blowingly wonderful in every way.
When this London production hits Broadway, as I'm sure it will, be prepared to see this Sondheim musical in a new light. It is an astounding production with all the "state of the art" technical wizardry that the second act cries out for.
Not only that, and even more importantly, the passion, feeling, and emotion of the two main characters is still intact in this brilliant new unfolding of Sondheim's masterpiece.
I posted here some weeks go about how I was so sure I would not go to see this new London show because I would be holding the vision and sound of Bernadette Peters' "Dot" in my mind and heart and how I felt no-one could ever live up to that. But I am so glad that I have seen this wonderful production with Jenna Russell as Dot. To be fair, I can only say that she is simply superb.
I think you can tell by now that I am very much impressed by this new staging of the show ...
But, you know what? I STILL sat all the way through this fabulous production thinking how great it would have been if those notes were sung by Bernadette or that "look" was executed by Bernadette. She IS Dot and ever shall be. No-one will ever take that away from her.
Sunday In The Park With George is great. But Sunday In The Park Without Bernadette is bloody awful!
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 6/2/2006 at 5:35:45 PM ET
Encouraging words. Given the chance to see the production, I don't think I would be able to resist it. Sunday In The Park is one of my very favorite works of art, period. For me it shares the same status as a Turner painting or a Debussy symphony or any other timeless work.
|  Jenny_loves_
bernadette
Registered User
Registered:
6/6/2002
From:
London | posted: 6/4/2006 at 5:04:29 AM ET
It's wonderful isn't it?!! I saw it at the Menier's chocolate factory - I can't remember if I told you. The projections are amazing!! Instead of all the cardboard cut out Georges during "putting it together" they have video projections of moving Georges!!! It's brilliant!! In fact everything done by flats of trees etc in the original production is done by video projection. At the beginning it's white "a blank page or canvas" and it looks like someone is colouring it in, first in charcoal and then painting it in colour!! I was SOOO excited!!
i saw Anna Jane casey as Dot and like Scottie I thought "nah - she can't match Bernadette" but she was absolutely wonderful. She didn't make as good a Marie in the second act, though. 
they say bernadette's wonderful..........and she is
xx Jenny xx
|  Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 6/4/2006 at 10:07:58 AM ET
Thanks for posting about this Scottie. I've listened to the recording of this production and I'm longing to see it in the West End. I don't love Jenna Russell as "Dot" - it is true about Bernadette always being the quintessential "Dot" - but the recording is stellar. Leebee - you're so right, in my opinion, SITPWG is indeed a masterpiece in any form. I think it's worth seeing no matter who is in it. I heard that the West End production has extended through September and the rumor here is that it is coming to Broadway to the Roundabout in 2007 - we can only hope. Maria Friedman (another London "Dot") actually said at her cabaret at the Carlyle the other night that it is definitely coming. Sondheim revivals are HOT HOT HOT right now. Ah, it's good to be Sondheimish.
http://sarahbsadventures.blogspot.com/
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 6/4/2006 at 7:40:16 PM ET
Thanks, Sister Rose, maybe Bernadette will appear in one of those upcoming Sondheim revivals!
The first time I was ever really aware of Jenna Russell was when I went to see Guys And Dolls in the West End last year. Ewan MacGregor was the reason most people went but Jenna proved to be an added bonus. She won an Olivier Award for her performance in the show. I'm sure you know it's a very big thing to win an "O" and she certainly deserved it. She has done lots of Shakespeare and even some Chekhov in London theatre - so her acting abilities are not in question. Whether we like her singing voice is just a matter of personal taste I suppose but it's only fair to say that she certainly "cuts the mustard" in that respect.
But the thing about Bernadette as "Dot" is that she is the "whole package" - to put it bluntly.
It's not just that she is the actress who first interpreted the role (and thank goodness we have it preserved forever on Video/DVD for those of us who didn't get to see the original production), but it surely is true to say that she inhabits the character so deeply that we feel every emotion "Dot" feels and we share in her frustration and despair over "George" and his failure to give her what she needs. We know he is creating a great work of art but we still want to give him a "good slap" because he is letting this wonderful woman go. Well, at least I do!
Another thing that may seem a bit silly but I think is very important - quite apart from Bernadette's superb acting and singing qualities as "Dot" - she even manages to LOOK so much like an artist's model.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 6/4/2006 at 9:14:41 PM ET
Wondering - did any of our friends here actually see Bernadette in "Sunday in the Park With George" in the theatre?
http://sarahbsadventures.blogspot.com/
| Jenny_loves_
bernadette
Registered User
Registered:
6/6/2002
From:
London | posted: 6/5/2006 at 4:19:56 AM ET
my bet is on Jean - hee hee! I think she's seen everything
they say bernadette's wonderful..........and she is
xx Jenny xx
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 6/5/2006 at 6:22:36 AM ET
Nope, I saw her only in George M and Mack and Mabel, then a long break until Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy.
2 friends saw Sunday, but I had decided not to visit New York with them and so I missed it. I meant to see Goodbye Girl, but by the time I was ready to get to New York it had closed.
Missed opportunities.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 6/5/2006 at 6:39:57 PM ET
Yes, it would be so great to read the views/recollections of anyone who did actually see the original Broadway production of SITPWG with Bernadette and Mandy.
Jean's post reminds me ...I am so terribly guilty of thinking that everyone in the US is racing off to see every Broadway show - quite forgetting that it is rather a big country and that I, in London, am possibly closer to New York than some people in America.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 6/5/2006 at 8:21:31 PM ET
I'm just wrapping up my fourth year of living in New York and I'm living my dream of seeing as many live performances of Broadway, opera, and classical music as possible. I think most of my fellow New Yorkers here on the board will agree that we try to see as much as possible and most of the time the most difficult thing is having to choose between events or paying for them (fortuantely there are discounts for most things). The good thing about our friends on the East Coast is that the states are so close to each other that most of them are just short day trips away. Sometimes I see my friends who live in Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania more often than I see my friends who live in other boroughs. Being from Texas, which is the second largest state, I at first marveled at the novelty of that - it would take me 8 hours to drive from where I lived in San Antonio to Midland where my family lives.
~Sarah, who's still in shock that Jean didn't see Goodbye Girl, Song and Dance or SITPWG.
http://sarahbsadventures.blogspot.com/
| | Other threads: « Next | Previous » |
Do you think this topic is inappropriate? Vote it down. After a thread receives a certain amount of negative votes it will be automatically locked.
Please contact us with any concerns you might have.
|
