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Epicurus.com - Sunday in the Park with George (1984 Original Broadway Cast)
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List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $13.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: RCA
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0828766863826
Format: Cast Recording
Label: RCA
Manufacturer: RCA
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: RCA
Release Date: 2007-03-20
Studio: RCA
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Editorial Reviews:
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A Classic Stephen Sondheim Musical Available Now at a New Low Price! Features bonus tracks, digitally remastered and new liner notes.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Complex, Memorable and Moving.
Comment: Sunday in the Park with George is one of Sondheim's top 3 shows, and the score one of the greatest written of all time. A great quality of the show, definitively preserved by the OBC album, is its value of repeat viewing.
Initially, "Children and Art", "Move On", "We Do Not Belong Together" and in parts the title song are among the most memorable numbers with Bernadette Peters' heart wrenching vibrato and Sondheim's melodies. Even Mandy Patinkin whose falsetto can be hard for some to swallow has his moments in "Beautiful" and "Lesson #8". And of course, who could forget "Sunday" with its choral brilliance. There are so many memorable songs, in fact, that it's hard for me not to just list them all.
It is important to have seen the show as the sheer complexity of the score can not be understood without acknowledging Sondheim's intricate attention in linking his musical ideas to the characters within the show. "Color and Light" is an easy example of this; the staccato representative of George Seurat's use of 'dots' to revolutionize the way his art is constructed and viewed; "Gossip" is an underrated example of Sondheim's ability to link music with characters (featuring one of my favourite lines in the show sung by William Parry) and also provides a bit of contrast to Sunday's other melodic numbers. Some of Sondheim's work is so subtle I wonder if he believes it works unconsciously. (I recommend "Sondheim's Broadway Musicals" by Stephen Banfield to pick up on all the details).
Although slightly shorter and of less quality than the Menier Chocolate Factory revival recording, the superior orchestrations and irreplaceable cast of the 1984 recording make it a better purchase in my opinion - although I feel 'Sunday' is just one of those shows, along with "Into the Woods" and "Pacific Overtures" that just can't work as well without their respective original casts who define the show.
Customer Rating:
Summary: For Artists Only
Comment: I once was associated with a community theater production of "Sunday In The Park With George," my favorite musical. Unlike most community theaters, this one was well-funded, with money to burn, and burn money they did. In attempting to replicate the production values of the original Broadway show, their comprehensive carbon copy was the most expensive play they had ever put on in their 150 year history. It was DOA, and a flop. Because copying isn't art. Because they could sing it, but they couldn't hear it. What makes "Sunday In The Park" so thrilling is that it soars on songs that plumb (with great good humor and compassion), the demands that art makes on artists. As the title of this review, taken from the Talking Heads, suggests, you either get it, or you don't. Most don't. Or as George sings, "They have never understood / And no reason that they should / But if anybody could. . ."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sunday in the Park with George is Outstanding
Comment: I saw this show on Broadway in 1984 and this recording brings back the thrill of that experience. Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are at the top of there game. This is a magical recording.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Score...Middling Show
Comment: This remastered edition of the OBC of "Sunday in the Park with George" is pristine and sonically beautiful. It captures a rapturous performance by Bernadette Peters, some of Steven Sondheim's finest moments and the usual from Mandy Patinkin: gorgeous renditions of some plaintive songs mixed with over-the-top, gimmicky hijinx that tax the listener and overwhelm the material. "Sunday..." has always been a puzzlement. Despite some weak songs in the first act ("Gossip", "No Light", "The Day Off") it still has resonence and soaring melodic and comedic moments. "Everybody Loves Louis" is a highlight for Peters and she shows off her comedic elan to its best effect. She also injects "We Do Not Belong Together" with a searing intensity that communicates both her wrath and deep hurt at the loss of George. "Finishing the Hat" is Patinkin's moment to shine. No one has ever performed the piece better and it is one of Sondheim's greatest achievements as well as Patinkin's. All of this leads to a moment of musical theater history, the soaring denoument to Act I, "Sunday". This song builds in beauty and surging power to a climax that is emotionally overwhelming and deservedly so.
Act II has always been castigated for being either unnecessary or disjointed. It is true that the book rather clumsily tries to connect the past and the present, but Sondheim still comes up with some classics. "It's Hot Up Here" is an odd comical number that works on its premise: characters in Seurat's painting sing a litany of complaints about being immortalized in a painting. The conceit works perfectly. "Putting It Together" has rightly become a standard because it nails the dichotomy of art and commerce in precise, hilarious asides. The "Chromolume #7" section is dated and belabored, but what follows is a series of songs that build upon character and theme quite efficiently. Peters' gentle "Children and Art" is a wise lullaby that she performs exquisitely, and Patinkin's "Lesson #8" is the breakthrough his character needs. His subdued rendition is sincere, underplayed and quite welcome. Both performers collaborate beautifully together in the joyous "Move On", which also provides the listener with the emotional release needed to make the piece come together. Finally, The reprise of "Sunday" is more mournful and pensive than when first heard, a precise and moving end to a problematic musical.
Peters manages to assert herself here as a Broadway force to be reckoned with, as she would repeatedly prove to be in the years to come. Unfortunately, Patinkin also manages to assert himself as one of the most eccentric and inconsistent Broadway performers around. His "The Day Off", in which he portrays and imitates a dog, is an ordeal to listen to. On other occassions, his dour, one-note portrayal makes George seem like an insufferable narcissist. Maybe that was the authors' intent, but it sure doesn't make for an entertaining listen.
"Sunday in the Park..." is worth the time of anyone interested in musical theater, and the CD does not suffer from the scripting lapses that plagued the show. If only someone could have given Patinkin a sedative or two he might have grated less and relied more on his talent than his show-offmanship.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Comment: One of the best scores written by Stephen Sondheim! So amazing! You will enjoy it very much!
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