Sunday in the Park with George premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on May 2, 1984, with book by James Lapine and direction by Lapine. The published text appeared from Dodd, Mead. The show won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Act One: Georges Seurat, in 1884 Paris, is painting his masterpiece — A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The people in the park become characters: his mistress Dot (frustrated by his obsessive attention to his work rather than to her), his mother, various Parisians. As the act progresses, Seurat constructs the painting — literally, the audience watches the stage composition resolve into the final image. The act ends with the completed painting and Dot’s departure.
Act Two: A century later, George (Seurat’s fictional great-grandson) is a conceptual artist struggling with the commercial art world. The connection between the two acts is thematic: both explore the cost of artistic creation, the tension between art and human connection, and the question of whether the work justifies the sacrifice.
“Finishing the Hat” and “Move On” are Sondheim’s most personal songs — statements of artistic faith that double as autobiography. The show is widely considered the finest musical about the creative process ever written.
Collecting Sunday in the Park with George
First edition (Dodd, Mead, New York, 1986): Trade paperback.
Original cast recording (RCA Victor, 1984): LP.
Market values:
- Original cast LP, sealed: $30–$80
- Signed by Sondheim and Lapine: $200–$500