(Above: Dylan Bunten and Laurel Merz star in Cottage Theatre’s production of Sunday in the Park with George.)
By Randi Bjornstad
Cottage Theatre’s latest production — it opens June 5 and runs through June 21 — is titled Sunday in the Park with George and is based on a famous painting by French pointillist Georges Seurat, which he called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Despite all that, it’s a fairly simple plot, as provided by Cottage Theatre’s executive director, Susan Goes:
What does it take to create great art—and what does it cost? In a swirl of color and passion, visionary painter Georges Seurat strives to bring a new kind of beauty into the world, even as his bond with his muse and lover, Dot, begins to fracture.
Dismissed by critics and misunderstood by peers, Seurat’s devotion to his work comes at a heart-wrenching price. A century later, his descendant, another George, wrestles with creative burnout and the weight of legacy. Searching for direction, he discovers that the inspiration he needs has been waiting in the past all along.
Fortunately, composer Stephen Sondheim and playwright and director James Lapine had the foresight and imagination to turn Seurat’s story into a Broadway musical that they called, simply, Sunday in the Park with George. It so captivated musical theater aficionados that it won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for drama and also two Tony Awards (although nominated for a whopping 10).
The original Broadway musical featured megastars Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in the roles of Seurat and Dot, his muse and lover. The story takes place as Seurat increasingly finds himself progressing and immersing in his art even as critics and the public seem not to understand and accept his approach, and the couple’s relationship begins to come apart.
The Cottage Theatre production, directed by Jesse Merz, stars Dylan Bunten as George and Laurel Merz as Dot/Marie in the lead roles, with supporting roles by Susan Goes, Clara Eddelman-Hunley, Tom Gillies, Alana Merz, Marc Siegel, Anna Southall, Willow Kelty, Mandala Surasky, Brandon Foster, Zoë Pouliot, Christopher Ridgeley, Greg Chapman, and Max Arnold.
Sunday in the Park with George at Cottage Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. on June 5-6, 11-13, and 18-20; 2:30 p.m. on June 14 (Note: Sunday performances sold out for June 7 and 21)
Where: Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove (east of the I-5 freeway off Exit 174)
Tickets: $20-$32, available from the box office 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at 541-942-8001 or online at cottagetheatre.org
(Below: The George Seurat pointillist painting, created in 1884-86, that dumbfounded art critics and the public at the time but which became the smash musical, Sunday in the Park with George, on Broadway 100 years later.)
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