For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Kuehn, Executive Director
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Phone: (508) 428-0669
Email: [email protected]
Website: ArtsOnTheCape.org
“Sunday in the Park with George” at Cotuit Center for the Arts, July 6 to 30
Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical “Sunday in the Park with George” opens at Cotuit Center
for the Arts on Thursday, July 6, and runs through Sunday, July 30. Performances are Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 4 PM.
One of the most highly acclaimed musicals of all time, “Sunday in the Park with George” won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985, two Tony Awards for design, and numerous other awards and
nominations. David McCarty directs and choreographs the show; Henry Buck is musical director.
The musical follows George Seurat (a fictionalized version of French pointillist artist Georges Seurat)
in his search for love, inspiration, and the “art of making art.” The first act takes place in the months
leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte.” Consumed by his need to “finish the hat,” Seurat alienates the French bourgeoisie,
spurns his fellow artists, and neglects his charming lover Dot, not realizing that his actions will
reverberate over the next 100 years.
The musical opens in 1884 on the banks of the Seine, as the intensely focused artist, played by
Anthony Teixeira, begins to paint his masterpiece. “White, a blank page of canvas,” he says. “The
challenge: to bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light, and
harmony.”
He asks his longtime mistress Dot, played by Martha Paquin, to model for the painting, and she
agrees, despite her complaints about George, which she enumerates in the title song.
The characters in his paintings come alive as he paints them, some criticizing his unconventional
painting. “In addition to the very talented and accomplished Anthony Teixeira and Martha Paquin,”
said McCarty, “we have a stellar cast of supporting actors: Rachel Corliss, Orla Delaney, Michael
Ernst, Bonnie Fairbanks, Kristin Fehlau, Holly Hansen, Ari Lew, Karen McPherson, Ian Morris,
Christine Norton, Nick Romano, Sean Smith, James Swindler, and Hannah Wolfe.”
Act 2 takes place a century later in Chicago, where Seurat’s painting is exhibited, as another George
grapples with many of the same artistic issues that his great-grandfather was obsessed with.
“Sondheim’s score, realized by a chamber ensemble of strings, brass and keyboard, is as tautly
constructed as Seurat’s painting,” said Buck, who worked together with McCarty on the CCftA
production of Sondheim’s “Company.”
“A few short brushstrokes of melody comprise the musical vocabulary of the score,” said Buck.
“These melodic cells congeal into striking images of character and pathos; each image appears to be
much more than the sum of its unassuming parts.”
Andy Arnault has designed the set, which promises to serve as a fitting canvas for this extraordinary
musical.
Tickets are $32, $29 for seniors and veterans, $27 for members, and $15 for students. Premium
tables with wine are available. Dinner + Show packages with Villaggio at the Regatta available. For
tickets, and more information, visit artsonthecape.org, or call 508-428-0069. Cotuit Center for the
Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit.
# # # #
What:
“Sunday in the Park with George” a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapin
Where:
Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit
When:
July 6 to 30: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 PM; Sunday at 4 PM
Admission:
$32, $29 for seniors and veterans, $27 for members, $15 for students. Premium tables with wine
are available, as are Dinner + Show packages with Villaggio at the Regatta.
END