Sunday Stars Put It Together at WOS Outing Q&ADate: 7 June 2006
Whatsonstage.com theatregoers were treated to a unique insight into Stephen Sondheim and the creative process at last night’s Outing to the Menier Chocolate Factory’s award-winning production of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre. At an exclusive post-show discussion, the musical’s stars, Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell, and their director Sam Buntrock, talked about their experiences with the production, including working one-on-one with Sondheim and book writer James Lapine.
Exploring the creative process of French impressionist Georges Seurat (Evans), the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1984 musical begins in 19th-century France, where the impoverished painter battles with his art and his personal life. His engrossment in his work drives his pregnant girlfriend Dot (Russell) to leave him. The action then shifts to modern America where George’s great-grandson is facing similar problems.
Sunday in the Park with George has music by and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine. Buntrock’s revival - the first major London production since the National staged the musical’s UK premiere in 1990 – first opened on 29 November 2005 (previews from 18 November), at the Menier in Southwark, south London, where it enjoyed an extended, sell-out season until 12 March 2006. It transferred to Wyndham’s on 23 May 2006 (previews from 13 May).
The production’s set design features ground-breaking, computer-generated animations by David Farley and Timothy Bird, who jointly won this year’s Critics’ Circle Award for Best Designer for their efforts (See News, 31 Jan 2006). The production was nominated for five Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards and won Best Off-West End Production (See News, 31 Jan 2006).
Highlights from last night’s discussion, chaired by Whatsonstage.com’s editorial director Terri Paddock, follow…
On how the production came about
Sam Buntrock: When he arrived at the Menier, (artistic director) David Babani invited me to go and have a look at the theatre. I was taken into this small space and he said “what show should we do here?” and I said “Sunday in the Park with George” as a joke because it wouldn’t fit. I went away and didn’t think about it for a while, but then I came up with the idea of the animation and eventually I said to David, “actually I think it could work”. I think that’s one of the things the original Broadway production lacked - when George talked about a white canvas at the beginning, the entire set was already there. And I was thinking, surely that’s the end of Act One? With the animation, you really can have this blank canvas to start with and it’s so effective. Timothy Bird is an old school friend of mine and he is particularly talented at doing all this animation. He worked with a team of about 12 people absolutely flat out for days on end to make it work. He came into rehearsals one day wearing a T-shirt saying “No Sam, we can’t” because I’d already demanded so much and he was so tired he couldn’t even speak any more. But that is what is so wonderful about this production, the people involved are so committed to it. They’ve all taken extreme pay cuts to do it because they love it so much, they have that passion for it, which is why it has been so successful. Everyone is involved because they want to be.
Jenna Russell: When I was in Guys and Dolls I was talking to Anna-Jane Casey’s husband and he said she had just started rehearsing for Sunday and I thought Sunday, where, when? But I said “oh how marvellous” while being completely furious that I wasn’t doing it myself! I went to see it with my partner and a friend on the first Sunday matinee, and we were all in floods of tears. From about 15 minutes in, we were in a pool on the floor. Then I got called and asked if I wanted to do it and I had kittens, I was dancing around my kitchen screaming. Of course, when I came into rehearsals I tried to be all cool and said to Daniel “yeah, this is an interesting project”. I had said I wasn’t going to do any more musicals after Guys and Dolls for a while, but this was just far too good an opportunity to miss. I love the show so much and I love the production, too. On rehearsing the production
Daniel Evans: The rehearsal process, particularly “Putting it Together” for example, with all the fake Georges, was very challenging, because they weren’t all filmed until well into the process so for a lot of the time you had no idea what you were dealing with – there was at least one rehearsal where I seriously felt like throwing myself off Southwark Bridge. There was one performance at the Menier when the entire projections collapsed, and so there was basically no scenery. I know it’s about the characters and the story and the music, but the animation adds so much to this production, I really felt sorry for that audience. I came to singing late, I had singing lessons about five years after I left drama school, and for a long time I had a problem saying I was a singer so I always said I was an “actor who thinks he can sing” – and this is the perfect musical for an actor who thinks he can sing because there’s such a fine line between the speaking and the singing in Sunday in the Park. Sondheim uses the notes when the emotion becomes bigger than just speaking, and the tunes just flow from the action in the scenes so it feels natural.
Jenna Russell: Sondheim writes complex characters that are very interesting. With Sondheim, it is more like doing a play than a musical because they are so detailed. With a lot of musicals, even though I love them and think they’re great, the characters mean exactly what they say and that’s all, whereas they’re more complex in Sondheim.
On Sondheim & Lapine’s involvement
Sam Buntrock: Sunday is as much about Stephen Sondheim as it is about Georges Seurat. Sondheim had just had a diabolical failure with Merrily We Roll Along and was finding his way again. You can hear that tentativeness in some of the music, that he’s trying to feel his way and get back into it. He felt he didn’t want to write again. It’s all about the difficulty of putting yourself out there and being creative even if your work is not appreciated by everyone.
Daniel Evans: You sh*t yourself when the composer is there, especially when he’s such a legend like Sondheim, but he was amazing. Stephen is very strict. He knows exactly how he wants it to be performed, but it was amazing to have the chance to work with him and James Lapine. We were fortunate enough to have one-on-one sessions with them. It meant a great deal to me.
Jenna Russell: That really was one for the memory banks, working with Sondheim. I have worked with him two or three times but never as closely as on this. It was an honour.
Sam Buntrock: Sondheim is very fond of this production. Once it’s up and running, that’s basically my job done as director done. But when he and James Lapine came to see it, I was literally pacing up and down throughout the whole of Act One. But when I was introduced to them during the interval they were visibly moved. My fear of their response disappeared. It was an extraordinary moment.
On learning to paint
Daniel Evans: I did have a lesson with a painter. It was only one hour but I did understand it a lot better. Even though I’m worrying about all sorts of other things on stage, I do think my painting has improved. I’m not going to have an exhibition of the work I’ve done while being in the show, though. The cast keep threatening to sell my sketches on ebay, but I don’t think they’d even get 50p!
On transferring to the West End
Sam Buntrock: We re-filmed a lot of the impostor Daniels in “Putting It Together” for the West End transfer to make them more specific interactions with what’s going on on stage. Apart from that, it is exactly the same production here as it was at the Menier.
- by Caroline Ansdell
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