Awards

• Winner of Olivier Award for Best New Musical 1991
• Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1985

Overview

Inspired by Georges Seurat's pointillist masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical celebrates the art of creation and the creation of art. In the first half of the musical, set in 1884, the people - and the animals - in the painting come to life in a world where, for the artist George, art comes before love, before everything. In the second half, a century later, Seurat's great-grandson is wrestling with the same obsessions in present-day New York. Sunday in the Park with George was premiered on Broadway in May 1984, in a production directed by James Lapine. An earlier, incomplete version had been performed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in July 1983. The musical went on to win the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The first London production opened at the National Theatre in March 1990. It won the 1991 Olivier Award for Best New Musical. 'The first truly modernist work of musical theatre that Broadway has ever produced' — New York Times 'Penetrates the mystery of artistic creation... overpoweringly affecting... what a show this is... irresistible' — Daily Telegraph 'This is great musical theatre' — Sunday Times Olivier Award for Best New Musical Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Full Product Details

9781854590572

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Reviews

'The first truly modernist work of musical theatre that Broadway has ever produced' * New York Times * 'Penetrates the mystery of artistic creation... overpoweringly affecting... what a show this is... irresistible' * Daily Telegraph * 'This is great musical theatre' * Sunday Times *

Author Information

Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a celebrated American composer and lyricist, one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theatre. Sondheim started his theatre career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959) before becoming a composer and lyricist. Sondheim's best-known works include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987). He won many awards including eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008), eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Author photo by Jerry Jackson

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