8/2/2019 Sunday in the Park with George UK Cast Album

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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