Sunday in The Park With George - Synopsis

Synopsis

Act I

In 1884, Georges Seurat, known as George in the musical, is sketching studies for his famous painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." His longtime mistress, Dot, models for him despite her frustrations ("Sunday in the Park with George"). Meanwhile an Old Lady and her Nurse discuss how Paris is changing to accommodate a tower for the International Exposition. The setting abruptly changes to an art gallery, where Seurat's first painting is on display. Jules (a more successful artist friend of George's) and his wife Yvonne think George's work has "No Life". Back on the island, Jules and Yvonne have a short discussion with George and depart. They take their coachman Franz with them, interrupting Franz's rendezvous with the Nurse.

In George's studio he works on his painting while Dot prepares for their date at the Follies ("Color and Light"). In the end George chooses to continue painting instead, greatly upsetting Dot.

In the park George sketches a grumpy Boatman. Dot enters on the arm of Louis, a baker. Two chatting shop girls, both named Celeste, notice Dot with a new man ("Gossip"). George sketches two dogs while whimsically trying to imagine the world from their perspective ("The Day Off"). Jules and Yvonne enter during the song and mock the unconventional nature of George's art. They protest an initiative to have his work included in the next group show. The two Celestes try to attract the attention of a handsome Soldier and his companion; Franz and his wife Frieda argue with Jules and Yvonne's daughter, Louise; Jules returns to further lecture George on his shortcomings as an artist; the Boatman reappears to rebuke the condescending attitude of artists. Dot misses George, but feels justified in having chosen Louis instead ("Everybody Loves Louis"). The two Celestes fight over the more handsome of the two soldiers ("The One on the Left").

As the park empties for the evening, George returns. He misses Dot and laments that his art has alienated him from those important to him, but resigns himself to the likelihood that creative fulfillment may always take precedence, for him, over personal happiness ("Finishing the Hat").

At the studio Dot tells George that she is pregnant, and that she and Louis are getting married and leaving for America. She asks for a painting George made of her, but he refuses. Jules and Yvonne come to the studio. Yvonne and Dot talk about the difficulties of trying to maintain a romantic relationship with an artist, while Jules and George discuss George's painting in progress. Jules is puzzled by George's new technique, and concerned that George's obsession with his work is alienating him from his fellow artists and collectors alike. Jules and Yvonne leave, and Dot and George argue bitterly about their failed relationship, concluding sadly that ("We Do Not Belong Together").

In the park George and his mother, the Old Lady, reminisce ("Beautiful"). The Celestes and the Soldier argue over their respective break-ups while Jules and Frieda enter to have a clandestine affair in the park. Louise informs her mother, Yvonne, of her father's infidelity and a fight breaks out between Jules, Yvonne, Franz, and Frieda. While this conflict develops the Celestes and the Soldier squabble noisily. Soon all the park-goers are fighting furiously, until the Old Lady shouts, "Remember, George!" George takes control of the subjects of his painting, who sing in harmony ("Sunday"). George transforms all of the people into the final tableau of his finished painting.

Act II

As the curtain opens the characters – still in the tableau – complain about being stuck in the painting ("It's Hot Up Here"). The characters deliver short eulogies for George, who died suddenly at 31.

The action fast-forwards one hundred years to 1984. George and Dot's great-grandson, also named George and also a struggling artist, is at a museum unveiling his latest work: a color and light machine called ("Chromolume #7"), an artistic reflection on the painting from the first act. Marie, the new George's grandmother and the first George and Dot's daughter, helps with the presentation. At a reception various patrons and curators congratulate George on his work while George comments about the difficulties of producing modern art ("Putting It Together"). After the museum's patrons have left Marie contemplates her legacy ("Children and Art").

Weeks later, Marie has died and George has been invited by the French government to do a presentation of the Chromolume on the island where the painting was made. On the island George reads from a book he got from his grandmother – the same book Dot used to learn to read – and ponders the similarities between himself and his great-grandfather ("Lesson #8"). A vision of Dot appears and discusses 'her' book with George. Dot tells George to stop worrying about his critics ("Move On"). George finds some words written in the back of the book – the words George often muttered while he worked. As George reads them aloud the characters from the painting fill the stage and recreate their tableau ("Sunday"). As they leave and the stage resembles a blank canvas, George reads: "White: a blank page or canvas. His favorite – so many possibilities."