A Digitally Enhanced 'Sunday in the Park with George'

by Kate Taylor
Thu, 7 Feb 2008 at 1:44 AM

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"Sunday in the Park with George" contains some of Stephen Sondheim's most heart-wrenchingly beautiful music. But audiences at the new revival of "Sunday," an import from London that opens February 21, will likely leave marveling at the beauty of the digitally animated set design.

The first act of "Sunday" revolves around the creation of George Seurat's masterpiece, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte." The designers of the original 1984 production conjured the progress from blank canvas to fully composed painting by having cut-out elements of the picture pop up from the stage, or slide out of and back into the wings, as Seurat experimented with and rejected various arrangements of people, trees, and boats on the river.

Almost 25 years later, the director Sam Buntrock has harnessed the power of digital animation to reinvent this aspect of the play. Now, projections of the trees and people Seurat sketches appear magically onstage, as though the actor, Daniel Evans, were actually drawing a huge brush across the set. In the second act, during the song "Putting It Together" — in which, in the original, George propped up cut-outs of himself talking to various groups of people, to suggest the hyperactive schmoozing required of the successful artist –– George now summons up digital doppelgängers, who talk and laugh and gesticulate on their own.

All of these effects are funny and surprising. But in some ways, the most beautiful effect is in the last scene, when George visits the modern-day Grande Jatte. As the scene progresses, we see twilight slowly fall in a photographic image of the park.

Mr. Sondheim was apparently supportive of the idea of using digital animation to recreate "Sunday." The animation was designed by Timothy Bird, a former schoolmate of Mr. Buntrock's and a founder of the Knifedge Creative Network, which does branding strategy for corporate clients, as well as animation, video production, and lighting design.

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