Sunday in the Park with George at the Guthrie Theater

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
by George Seurats

Stephen Sondheim is not only one of the great musical theater composers to ever live, he is also my absolute favorite. So you can imagine my excitement when I was invited to review Sunday in the Park with George at the Guthrie Theater. As much of a super fan of Sondheim as I am, I must admit this was my first time ever seeing or hearing a production of Sunday in the Park with George and (SPOILER ALERT) I loved it. It was beautiful, moving and included wonderfully done direction by director Joseph Haj.

Sunday in the Park with George is a musical inspired by George Seurat's famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by James Lapine, Sunday in the Park with George originally opened on Broadway in 1984 and starred Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. The musical won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and nominated for a total of 10 Tony Awards (winning Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design).

The cast recreating A Sunday Afternoon on Island of
La Grande Jatte
Photo by T Charles Erickson

The musical takes a deep look into what it is like to be an artist. The word artist is a very subjective term as both acts of the show take different approaches to the definition. The first act revolves around George Seurat (played by Randy Harrison) who is a dedicated and serious painter. His latest masterpiece engulfs his entire being and even risks his relationship with his lover, Dot (played by Erin Mackey). The second act takes place a century later, where George's great-grandson is working as a more contemporary artist.

I fell almost immediately in love with the set upon walking into the Wurtele Thrust, designed by Jan Chambers. It had the perfect amount of simplicity and sophistication for this Sondheim production. A large white outline frames part of the plain blank stage. Behind that a large white cloth hangs from on the stage left side and behind that a black scrim, hiding the orchestra. It's an obvious yet brilliant metaphor for a design. As the actors moved around on stage, they themselves were painting scenes across the white canvas of the stage and it quite honestly was one of my favorite parts of the entire production. As the first act ended, George began moving different actors around the stage, in the outline of the canvas, in a frantic way that left some audience members confused. It wasn't until they were all set that a larger version of the famous painting flew in behind the actors that the audience understood and cheered.

George as he paints Dot
Photo by T Charles Erickson

The performances by all the actors were remarkable. It is the famous Guthrie Theater after all, did I expect anything less than superb? As someone who has performed in two Sondheim shows myself (Rapunzel's Prince in Into the Woods and Charles Guiteau in Assassins), I know how difficult his music is. His harmonies and master of the English language is difficult and rewarding. The entire ensemble of actors had their work cut out for them with this musical and they were fantastic. Everything from Dot's mouthful of words and clear control of breath support in the opening title song to the staccato ensemble verses in "It's Hot Up Here." Harrison's singing is not to go unnoticed as well. It was soft and tender at times while his belts filled the performance space beautifully.

The overall tone and mood of this production is really something special. As I mentioned before, I had never seen Sunday in the Park with George and I was quite surprised as to how many times I found myself laughing out loud. Mackey had the audience in the palm of her hand the entire time, as we laughed with her comedic timing but also felt for her during her times of sorrow. While Harrison's character often was not trying to be funny, it was his blunt honesty that made me laugh.

Photo by T Charles Erickson

Sometimes theater is not for everyone, and I believe this show might be one of those...or at least those who are not willing to try. I heard a few audience members say they did not enjoy the time skip along with the fact that they didn't understand how George could see his ancestors and the people who originally posed for the A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte painting. At times like this audience members really should follow, what I believe to be a common practice for theater goers, suspension of disbelief. Now there is a difference between suspending disbelief and just lack of a plot that makes sense however this is the exception that if you're going to see this production, you need to be willing to just go with it.

Sunday in the Park with George is a beautifully painted production of Sondheim's beloved masterpiece. The music is stunning and the actors bring so much a production that many would die to be apart of. It is the production to see this summer. Sunday in the Park with George plays June 17 through August 20. More information can be found here.

What's Your Damage, Heather? (Heathers at Twin Cities Community Theatre)

"Heathers: The Musical" is a rock musical with music, lyrics and a book by Laurence O'Keefe (Batboy: The Musical and Legally Blonde: The Musical) and Kevin Murphy. The musical was in development for quite sometime including a sold-out Los Angeles tryout and a concert version before finally moving to Off-Broadway in 2014. The story is about Veronica (played by Winona Ryder in the movie) who manages to become a part of the most popular clique in high school, but she disapproves of the other girls' cruel behavior. When Veronica and her new boyfriend, J.D. confront clique leader Heather Chandler and accidentally poison her, they make it appear a suicide. Soon Veronica realizes that J.D. is intentionally killing students he does not like. She races to stop J.D. while also clashing with the clique's new leader, Heather Duke.

As a fan of the original 1988 American cult black comedy film, I was ecstatic to hear that they were adapting this movie into a musical. It had a rather short run off-Broadway, which is unfortunate because it's a great campy adaption and an even more wonderful score with killer lyrics. They even manage to sneak in all of the iconic lines such as "Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?" and my personal favorite "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw."

I saw the Twin Cities Community Theatre production on Thursday, February 4th and it had some ups and some downs. Many of the actors took their parts a little too realistically and didn't embody the dark comedic elements that the original movie had. The exception to this was Lily Cornwell, who played Heather Chandler. I also appreciated Dylan Cima approach to the role of J.D. It felt like his own but at the same time honoring Christian Slater, who played the original J.D. in the movie. The singing in this production had some notable performances including Tommie Hollingsworth who played Veronica Sawyer. Her belting in the popular song "Dead Girl Walking" was fantastic and she had a wonderful tone to her voice. I think one of the hardest songs to sing in this production is possible "Candy Store" sung by the Heather trio. It needs to evoke power and a serious ear for the harmonies that the three sing. The three Heather's sang this song well but they were just shy from hitting the harmonies perfectly.  While many of the actors still had me laughing at times, I credit most of that to the actual book and lyrics.

J.D. and Veronica during the song "Freeze Your Brain" 

Often I don't blog about technical elements with a show, however I really want to give praise to Matt Jansen (Light Design) and Toniy Hamernick (Light Engineer) to the impressive light show they created for this production. The lighting was absolutely beautiful and really brought some depth to the show visually. I enjoyed that there was an actual permanent structure on stage for this production. Last fall I saw Legally Blonde: The Musical here and was slightly disappointed at the constant roll on set pieces. However the structure for this show gave it some height and more levels for the actors to play with.

If you're a huge fan of the movie, I still recommend going to see this production. It has just about everything that you loved from the movie and is an almost scene by scene adaptation of the movie but with music. This musical is not produced often by many theatre companies s, so I applaud Twin Cities Community Theatre for taking on this show, especially with its questionable content matter.

"Heathers: The Musical" plays Feb. 2nd-Feb. 12th.
Tickets are available online at www.tcctheatre.com
*Twin Cities Community Theatre uses Paypal if you wish to purchase tickets ahead of time.

Coffee Talk with Brett is apart of the Twin Cities Theater Blogging group.
Like us on Facebook: Link

Hairspray LIVE: Did it fall flat?

I am not going to lie. I’ve been very unimpressed with NBC and their live musicals. When the idea first came forward. with The Sound of Music, I was excited. That was true until I heard that Carrie Underwood would lead (I only managed to watch 30 minutes of it). I was not impressed with Peter Pan and never managed to see The Wiz, despite hearing pretty decent things about it. However I felt maybe NBC had finally figured it out with Hairspray. Maybe they were ready to do it right especially with the fact that Fox had successfully taken the broadcasted live musical crown with their production of Grease. So did Hairspray stand up or fall flat?

The cast of "Hairspray LIVE"

Let’s start with the two biggest technical issues: cameras and microphones. I honestly thought Maddie Baillio (Tracy Turnblad) forgot some of her lines in the opening song “Good Morning Baltimore” because her microphone kept going out at times when I couldn’t see her face. The microphones continued to be a problem in big numbers where cheering from the audience, or the music was still being played, drowned out the actors singing or speaking. During the performance I was also extremely confused on many of the camera angles. I know nothing about producing but half of the time I was extremely confused as to why some of the angles looked like a hidden camera in a shady bootleg recording of a Broadway production.

Hairspray is a musical. Cast people who know how to sing. As a big budget musical, I understand they need to cast stars that will bring people in, but Derek Hough (Corny Collins) could not sing and was given three songs. He’s a very talented dancer but I was not impressed with his singing or even Garrett Clayton (Link Larkin) despite being very easy on the eyes. Some casting choices I just did not understand including Jennifer Hudson (Motormouth Maybelle). Now before you sharpen your pitchforks, I will say I am a fan of her singing. She’s certainly talented and don’t get me started on how she had me crying during her rendition of “I Know Where I’ve Been.” However I think NBC missed an opportunity in casting a bigger girl for this role, especially because her first song is titled “Big, Blonde and Beautiful." Next to race, one of the biggest themes of this show is being an outcast, or in Tracy and Edna’s case a “big girl.”

Kristin Chenoweth as Velma Von Tussle

While some could not sing, or weren’t exactly what I was hoping casting wise, others most certainly were both including Tony-Award winner Kristin Chenoweth . We all knew she’d rock it, despite getting her bow cut off at the end (WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS!?). Her portrayal of Velma Von Tussle was hilarious, engaging and she made the part her own. When it came to singing I think the most underrated performance of the night was Dove Cameron who played Amber Von Tussle. For many, this was our first exposure to her and I felt like she nailed it. At times I felt she was a little too whiny to be the “mean girl” but I guess you can’t have it all, she was still fantastic.

These were some of my biggest pros and cons. I could ramble on more about how I felt Link and Tracy had no chemistry once so ever or how I thought the “behind the scenes” before commercial breaks totally broke the illusion but as I said before we can’t have it all. Overall, Hairspray was enjoyable. It had some very talented singing by some, dancing and in general it’s a musical with some catchy songs. NBC has done one thing that you cannot deny and it is that it is bringing more people into the world of live theater. With productions like these, theater is able to reach and introduce themselves to a wider national audience and I think for the theater industry that’s fantastic. I hope that with these live musicals, smaller theaters across the nation start getting more business and exposure