Stephen Sondheim’s Beloved Musical Shines as Seurat Revolutionizes Art

by Emily S. Mendel

Winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize and nominated for 10 Tony Awards, Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” is adored by the legion of Sondheim groupies. Not really being one of them, I had never seen “Sunday in the Park with George” until Shotgun Players’ new production blew me away. I could kick myself for waiting so long to get on the Sondheim bandwagon that helped to redefine musical theater.

This two-act delight is the story of how the cutting-edge French artist Georges Seurat painted his masterpiece “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” (1884-1886). He used his self-developed pointillist technique (in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image). This fictionalized musical portrays the artist’s urge to create and the cost of his driving need and artistic vision on his relationships with his beloved, his mother, and his peers.

In the first act, we meet George Seurat (terrific Kevin Singer), who is fixated on painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” It’s an enormous pointillist painting of various people and their pets in the park—very different in style than the fashionable artistic works of the time. But Seurat has his own vision.

His model and mistress, Dot (wonderful Maria Sotelo), loves George, but he cannot connect with her as she wants. Rather than accept a fraction of his time and affection, she runs off to America with her boyfriend, Louis the Baker. She leaves, despite being pregnant with Seurat’s child.

Act II begins one hundred years later at the Art Institute of Chicago, home to the completed and now world-famous “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” We see a descendant of Seurat (also played by Kevin Singer), who is an artist named George as well.

This modern, trendy George is involved in the contemporary art world, producing many similar, gimmicky, moving-light installations called “Chromolumes.” But the repetitive constructions leave him feeling unsatisfied and stagnant as an artist. At the end of the play, his Seurat ancestors speak to him, encouraging him to innovate and follow his heart.

The singing, lyrics, and off-site five-member band (music direction by David Möschler) are marvelous and melodic. Ably directed by Susannah Martin, the musical is neither incomprehensible nor challenging, despite the occasional comments of some Sondheim nay-sayers.  

The impressive two-tier set (scenic design by Nina Ball) has a backdrop of Seurat-like painted canvases that move as needed. If anything about the staging is amiss, it is the stage size, which prevents the whole cast from effectively replicating the entire scene in the painting, with its picnickers, dogs, parasol-carrying ladies, and other assorted Parisians out on a Sunday afternoon. But they do admirably well.

Outstanding music, fantastic singing, brilliant writing, first-rate acting, and excellent direction combine to make “Sunday in the Park with George” a unique theatrical performance. Don’t miss it. 

“Sunday in the Park with George” –music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, directed by Susannah Martin, music direction by David Möschler, scenic design by Nina Ball, costumes by Madeline Berger, lighting by Sophia Caven, by Shotgun Players, Berkeley, California.

Info: shotgunplayers.org – to January 25, 2026.  

Cast:  Kevin Singer, Maria Sotelo, William Brosnahan, Liz Curtis, No’Eau Kahalekulu, Kevin Rebultan, Antonia Reed, Alex Rodriguez, Jill Slyter, Matt Standley, and Lucy Swinson.

“Sunday in the Park with George” is a SFBATCC Go See! production!