Rating: 
Summary: Awful editing and film direction
Review: I loved this show on Broadway, it was wonderful live. Unfortunately, as usual, when they decided to film a show on stage the idiot director thinks he has to zoom in and out till you get a headache. They ruined the wonderful scenes when the actors BECAME living paintings. This was ingeniously directed on Broadway and was amazing to watch. YOu never knew it was going to happen and then, BAM, a painting appeared. That is completely lost in this DVD. Too bad...the same thing was done with Pippin, it is infuriating! All the dance number ruined. Idiots!
Rating: 
Summary: "George" DVD A Must-Have
Review: Others have covered the story of the show. A few words on the DVD itself: this video captures the wonderful essence of the production in spite of minor technical shortcomings. Several unobtrusive video glitches, and audio derived from the performers' body mics and close miking in the pit reveal the tape was made as a document of the show rather than as a "movie". A few instances of low-level audio "pre-echo" remind us this was made before digital production was common. The 1999 commentary track is Sondheim, Lapine, Peters and Patinkin viewing the video sans sound and talking about the development of the show in workshop and onto Broadway. Good enough reason to get the DVD even if you have a tape of the PBS "American Playhouse" presentation of years ago. The performance reflects the passion of the production, the range and power of the emotions spoken through the music and talent of the actors clearly coming through the minor shortcomings of the recording - this *is* the production I saw in 1984. If you are only familiar with the cast CD or the songs that made the charts you must see this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Sunday is sometimes boring for me but not this time
Review: I enjoyed this video. Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are faboulous. I've never seen a show that needed so many cutouts. The prop designer must have had his work cut out with those cut outs. Especially with those cutouts of Mandy Patinkin. I'll bet that in other productions of this show, they have to make cutouts of the person who is playing George. It was a bit boring, the show. The girl who plays Louise was sassy in her painting costume. She had beautiful shoulders. If only George Seurat lived today and Louise was in a bikini. They should have rewritten the ending with George talking to all the other characters such the Celestes, Napoleon (the soldier), Jules, the boatman etc. I hope they rewrite it when there is a revival. They should at least rewrite the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: nos pareció muy aburrido
Review: Nos pareció muy aburrido, aunque colorista y con efctos teatrales interesantes como la recreacion de los cuadros Bernardette muy bien , pero Mandy muy flojo
Rating: 
Summary: Very, very good production - But not as good as the score
Review: I first bought the cast recording and was amazed at its brilliance. I had been warned that the movie - a fictional story about Georges Seurat and his legacy (I say this because only the first act is really about him; the second act is made possible by the first, though) - was nothing like seeing the actual show live, and was somewhat dull. But I had to see it. It was not dull. I found it very enjoyable in fact. Mandy Patinkin is his usual fanatical self - which should work, considering he's playing an artist, and it does for most of the time, but he occasionally is just too "Mandy." Bernadette Peters is amazing, and her performance is much less affected than it is in Into The Woods, when she does some just-for-the-audience, out-of-character "cutesy" things that get on my nerves. She plays Dot (Seurat's lover) perfectly, capturing her "averageness" and yet also her extraordinariness. I also liked James Lapines' script in this, even more than I did his script for Into The Woods. The show doesn't look like I imagined it while listening to the CD, although this is not necessarily a bad thing. The music is beautiful, performances are great, but it - well, it could have been even better - which is not to say that it is not amazing now. If you love the CD (anybody who loves musicals - especially ones by Stephen Sondheim - MUST buy it), then I recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable record of a great Broadway show
Review: "Sunday In the Park With George" is a fascinating and very moving study on how thrilling but hard the life of an artist can be: how exciting, frusturating but ultimately rewarding the journey toward "getting through to something new" is, and also how painful it is to sacrifice an emotional connection in personal relationships in order to do so. Stephen Sondheim's score is, as usual, the heart of the show; although it is often fragmented and dissonant, much like the pointillist style of Georges Seurat (the French painter whose life and attempts to create the painting "A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grande Jette" are the focus of the first half of the show) and like many of SOndheim's other scores, it still is highly emotional and moving and there are songs of incredible beauty such as "Finishing the Hat," "Sunday," and "Children and Art." There are also some highly delightful moments such as the title song, "The Day Off," in which Georges imitates not one but two dogs, and "Everybody Loves Louis," as well as a final lovely moment of inspiration in "Move On." While the actual dialogue between the chracters is rather wooden, James Lapine's book on the whole does almost as good a job as Sondheim does of exploring the good and bad facets of an author's life and also has many colorful ideas on what the many people in the "La Grande Jette" painting might have been like. This taping of a performance of the original Broadway production, with almost all of the original cast, is a very valuable record of Lapine's highly effective direction, the fascinating set, and the wonderful performances which should be cherished. While frankly Mandy Patankin (As Seurat and, in the second act, his confused lasermaker-sculptor great-grandson) and Bernadette Peters (As Seurat's beautiful but frusturated mistress Dot and, in Act 2, their elderly child and Patankin's gradnmother!) were both in better voice on the original cast album, but still they both do wonderfully in both their roles; Peters in particular shines. The supporting cast (All of whom play two roles in each act) is also great, with particular standouts being Barbara Bryne and Dana Ivey in the first act, and Brent Spiner in the second. All in all a wonderful record of one of Sondheim's most personal and affecting shows. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Best Lyric Ever
Review: I chose and my world was shaken, so what. The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not. Keep moving on. What a mantra for a courageous life.
Rating:
Summary: Not just any "ordinary" Sunday
Review: This show is what many theater musicals should be like. Full of humor and melodic melodies and a powerful story to tell. The cast is wonderful. Bernedette Peters is in her best voice. I am not a huge fan of Mandy Patinkin but I must say he was wonderful. Not only is this one of the best paintings of our time but it is also one of the best musicals of our time. It is nice to know it was preserved on DVD. May more musicals follow suit.
Rating:
Summary: A tricky one
Review: This play is hard to review--because there's so much going on. When I was in High School, my Theatre teacher (who I'll leave anonymous, as I haven't asked his permission to use his name) had us study this piece in extreme depth. He had us write our own stories for the painting, and then had us read through the first act and say how we'd write the second. Then he had us go through in excruciating detail and start picking out the nitty-gritty of what was in the script. GOOD LORD--there's more there than should rightfully fit in something twice as long. I fell in love with the work before we were even half finished. And I still keep finding more stuff in the script. That's why I won't review what's in the musical--I'm not up to it, especially in under 1000 words. Instead, there's the performances. The music is nearly flawless, with stunning performances. My favorite moment is the haunting "Finishing the Hat," although the Painting resolving and Dot's changing the bustle to an unborn baby are both stunning. Then there's the second act, which transcends mere moments. Bernadette shows every little bit of her talent in her dual role, and the supporting cast hardly disturbs the atmosphere. One of the few videos I've ever gotten deeply involved in. Easily five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Sunday in the Park with George
Review: This is the greatest musical of all times. It is passionate, sensitive, and extremely compelling. Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are in top form. Bringing humanity and life to the characters they play. The music sweeps you into George's world, seeing and feeling the joys and pain of his life. This is a musical that everyone who loves the theater should have in their collection.
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