Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s soaring musical Sunday In the Park With George opens April 19th at the Waterworks Players. A work revolving around the fictionalized French pointillist painter Georges Seurat, Sunday In the Park With George was the critically acclaimed winner of the 1984 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and 1991 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It has also had several successful revivals on Broadway and London’s West End.

The show opens in 1884 Paris with Georges Seurat sketching studies for his famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grande Jatte. “His work obsession and self doubt,” says Waterworks Director Dudley Sauve, “may make Georges’ complex character come across as cold, but he is very much alive and lives through his art. This is a musical that centers on the creative process involved in producing art. Further, it illustrates well the danger of not living in the moment.”

The story is set in different times and places. The first act is situated in Seurat’s 19th century France, where he paints a masterpiece by holding fast to his personal vision, but at a terrible cost to those persons closest to him.” While celebrated today as a genius, he died alone without ever having sold a painting. The second act takes place 100 years later in a modern American museum where Seurat’s great-grandson, a performance artist and another George, shows up to do a show. He is also adrift, despite great success. Accomplished, he’s lost touch with his inspiration—why, he wonders, does he make art at all?

The creative team of Dudley Sauve (Director) and Carole Harper (Musical Director) have assembled an excellent cast of actors from Longwood University and the local community.

Christopher Swanson is cast as Georges Seurat, who is completely engrossed in his artwork. Anita Lynn will play Dot, Georges’s longtime pregnant mistress who models for him. Robert Chambers will portray the more successful artist and friend Jules. Yvonne, played by April Shular, is married to Jules and thinks Georges’s paintings are lifeless

The rest of the ensemble includes Don Blaheta, Elizabeth Whiley, Christine Melendez, Eric Butler, Amanda Herrera, Jay Lynn, Ross Baldwin, Matt Lilly, Katherine Lusk, Christy Moore, Katie Lynn, and Maurice Ellis. They are involved in singing and a number of supportive roles.

Come be inspired and enjoy Waterworks Players’ production of Sunday In the Park With George. Performances are at 8:00 pm on April 19, 20, 26, and 27. Tickets are $15. You can obtain tickets by calling the box office at 434-392-3452 or visiting the web site: https://waterworksplayers.org.