Sunday in the Park with George

Stephen Sondheim wrote what might be his most sophisticated and eloquent music and lyrics to this James Lapine book. This presentation by Roundabout Theater Company is actually the Menier Chocolate Factory's production straight off a smash hit run on the West End in London. It's a brilliant, elegant, and magical experience. Sam Buntrock's direction and Christopher Gattelli's musical staging make the evening unfold effortlessly as the George Seurat's "new" style of painting - pointillism -comes to life "bit by bit" on a stage presented as the canvas.

The cast is mostly from England with a few "local" replacements. Daniel Evans portrays George in both acts superbly. In one of Sondheim's more memorable numbers from the show, Putting it Together, George reminds us "Art isn't easy". And neither is this production. You can tell there was a great deal of technical precision required in this show. The bare white stage is bathed in video making it appear, among many things, a full scale vision of Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".

Act I takes place on a series of Sundays from 1884 to 1886 both in the the park and George's studio. Act II shuttles us forward 100 years to 1984 at an American art museum and then back on the park. What's changed in these 100 years? What is art all about? How does art get made? What does art mean to the artist? What is the legacy of an artist? This story is one very clever and poignant version of the answers to these very questions.

"Having just a vision's no solution"

"Everything depends on execution"

"Putting it together, that's what counts"

Don a parasol, stoll over to Studio 54, and see some Art! Its well put-together!

The Ritz

Terrance McNally took on a controversial topic in 1975 on Broadway with the debut of The Ritz - a gay bathhouse! Well in 2008, it's not quite the same "gasp" from the audience regarding the topic. The movie was made shortly following the Broadway debut - staring Rita Moreno and Jerry Stiller. Coming back to Broadway in 2008 we find Kevin Chamberlain and Rosie Perez headlining the show.

Well - it's funny. And the shirtless young boys roving around the clever multi-level bathhouse set certainly hold your eye. But the show more reminded me of a marginal episode of Three's Company or Laverne and Shirley.

I did also enjoy the cabaret performances- which i have come to understand are meant to remind you of the starts to the careers of such singers at Bette Midler at the Continental Baths. Notwithstanding the farcical plot, I'd advise getting a discount ticket to see it. It's worth some moderate price just to make eye contact with one of the boy-babes roaming in and out of the steam room.

Gutenberg! The Musical!

Bud and Doug have a dream - to take their musical to Broadway - a musical about Gutenberg (yes, the guy that invented the printing press). Right now, they don't have any cast, any theater, or any props. They are just going to "read" us the musical to see what we think! And hopefully a Broadway producer (in the audience) will be won over.

With nothing more than a few cardboard boxes and a bunch of baseball hats with the many characters' names written on them - they entertain away. And never once did they mix up the hats and characters (and i never saw them "peak" at the hat stacks to verify the names).

It's a cheesy laugh riot! Bud and Doug pepper the reading with their own life experiences and all sorts of zany songs and antics.

Take a chance on these two corn-balls at the Actor's Playhouse. Guaranteed you'll leave smiling.

The Last Sunday in June