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8/2/2019 Sunday in the Park with George UK Cast Album
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sunday-in-the-park-with-george-uk-cast-album 1/1
Another SundayLondon cas t recording shows th a tre in terpre ta t ion c an wo r k
> Y IN T H E P A R K
PHOTO COURTESY PS CLASSICS
Until this year, Sunday
int/ie Park
with
George had the distinction of being th e
only Stephen Sondheim musical to play
in New \brk without having more than one
recording of its score. Even Sondheim's two
unsuccessful 1960s musicals, Do I Hear a Walts?
an d Anyone Can Whistle, have each been record-
ed twice (during the 1990s,
JAY/TER recorded a third \Vhisde
album, which has not been
released). Most Sondheim fans
never minded the lack of another
Sunday recording, however. The
1984 original cast recording
starred two preeminent inter-preters of Sondheim's work, Mandy
Patinkin and Bcrnadette Peters
(who reprised their roles in a cable
TV production ultimately preserved
on VI1S and DVD),and record pro-
ducer Thomas Z. Shepard intelli-
gently reconeeived the musical in
overseeing the cast album record-
ing. The first Sondheim east album
of the CD age, it blended dialogue and song and
added instrumentation to create an aural equiva-
lent to Georges Scurat's masterpiece being com-
pleted onstage. The album was a satisfying enter-
tainment on its own; you didn't need to haveseen Sunday on Broadway to enjoy the recording.
Sam Buntrock's 2006 minimalist production
of Sunday triumphed in a small setting with an
equally small orchestra. Tommy Krasker's recent
cast album (PS Classics) preserves the strengths
of that production. This CD successfully brings a
20th-century work about the creation of a 19th-
century masterpiece into a new century.
Daniel Evans, as George, is convincing and
captures the poignancy of both the French artist,
who must shut out the world in order to create,
and his American descendant, who can only
begin to work once he opens himself up. Evans
remains true to his character in each act. Whileportraying the two dogs in "The Day Off"
sequence (giving one a Scottish brogue), his
George comes across like a dedicated artist los-
ing himself in his work and trying to distract
himself from his romance \\ith Dot. Patinkin, per-
forming the song on Broadway, sometimes lapsed
into shtick. And in the lengthy "Putting It
Together," Evans compellingly switches between
singing to other characters and delivering inter-
nal monologues.
Jenna Russell is a more than worthy successor
to Peters as Dot and Marie. Adopting a Cockney
accent for Dot. she has only to speak her first
REV IEW BY ANDREW MI LNER
line in the opening number to define her status
and her relationship to George. In her delivery of
"Everybody^oves Louis," she's obviously not only
trying to convince George of her new love affair.
she's vainly trying to convince herself as well.
Her Marie is winning in singing "Children and
Art" and speaking her dialogue in "Putting It
Together."
The supporting cast is uniformly excellent.
Gay Soper is first-rate as Blair Daniels and
Seurat's mother, the Old Lady. Krasker wisely
includes her dialogue with Evans before
"Beautiful," which establishes their relationship
as a precursor to George and Marie's in A ct II.
Alasdair Harvey is strong as the Boatman in Act I
and the modern-day George's assistant Dennis.The 1984 cast album included an augmented
string section for the romantic songs, expanding
it further for the "Sunday" choruses ending each
act. It's a testament to music director Caroline
Humphris and orehestrator Jason Carr that this
album conveys the depth of Sondheim's score
with only five musicians (with a few added to
sweeten the recording). The "Sunday" chornse*
here are as fulfilling as on the original reconizae.
The only unsatisfying moments for listencx*
on the American side of the Atlantic are seicn
of the accents — in particular, Joanne Red*
(Harriet Pawling), Mark McKerracher ' -
Redmond) and Steven Kynman's (Lee RandalWith accents, as with acting, a little goes a
way; the broadness of the accents will likeK tr*
on American ears.
The bonus track, "The One on the Lett.
longer version of the brief scene in "The D
sequence betw-een the Soldier (Christopher
Colley) and the two Celestes (Sarah Frendti
and Kaisa Hammarlund) cut during Sundm
original workshop period. If not an essenni
number, it does demonstrate that the ;
Soldier is a cousin of such other Sondhcsn
acters as Miles Gloriosus and Count C
Magnus .
This new Sunday album may never ioriginal, but it shows that this Pulitasr 1
ning musical is open to reinterpreuiiffl
recording has an intimacy that
tener to pay attention to the central
Arthur Laurents said of the 19S4
duction, "It says you must be shown 1
at art. Butwhat about looking at |
Krasker and Humphris have found;
achieve this. fisn|
ANDREW MI LNER reviews books amt«
Philadelphia City Paper.
46 Th e Sondhe im Review