{"id":110771,"date":"2025-11-23T14:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T22:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/copy-of-sunday-in-the-park-with-george\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T20:59:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T04:59:49","slug":"sunday-in-the-park-with-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/sunday-in-the-park-with-george\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday in the Park with George"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>Theatrical Tour de Force<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

From the opening hush to the final chords, Shotgun Players\u2019 Sunday in the Park with George<\/em> unfolds as a fully realized theatrical experience. The production gathers itself with intention \u2014 moment by moment, layer by layer \u2014 the way a painting slowly sharpens into view. Characters step forward, the music warms, the design begins to breathe, and suddenly the whole world onstage has taken shape around you.<\/p>\n

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What You’re Seeing: A Brief History Behind the Painting & the Musical<\/div>\n

Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte<\/em> in 1884\u201386, using a revolutionary technique of tiny dots of pure color placed side by side so the viewer\u2019s eye\u2014not the brush\u2014would blend them. This meticulous pointillist method demanded precision, patience, and an almost architectural approach to art.<\/p>\n

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine built their musical on that idea: Act I imagines Seurat creating the painting; Act II jumps a century forward to a modern artist wrestling with innovation, technology, and the pressure to make something meaningful.<\/p>\n

Shotgun Players\u2019 production echoes this lineage\u2014crafted detail by detail, moment by moment\u2014much like Seurat building an image from countless deliberate choices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What rises from this steady build is performance with purpose, music with lift, and staging that doesn\u2019t simply present the material but animates it. This Sunday<\/em> moves with confidence and clarity \u2014 a tour de force assembled through detail, rhythm, and heart.<\/p>\n

The story spans two eras: Georges Seurat creating his masterpiece in 1884, and a modern artist navigating the pressures of contemporary creation. Across time, the musical traces what it takes to make something that lasts.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Sunday worth spending \u2014 tender, attentive, and beautifully crafted.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A George Worth Watching \u2014 and a Dot Who Brings the Spark
\n<\/strong>Kevin Singer,<\/span> gives George an interior pulse \u2014 a man who sees the world in pieces, then tries to assemble a whole out of the fragments. His stillness draws focus; his concentration shapes the stage.<\/p>\n

Marah Sotelo\u2019s Dot brings the momentum. Her wit, warmth, and grounded immediacy infuse Act I with emotional clarity. She makes every scene count.<\/p>\n

Kevin Singer and Marah Sotelo deliver a George and Dot you genuinely care about.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Together, their dynamic creates the kind of tension that feels lived rather than staged \u2014 two lives moving at different tempos, brushing past and circling back.<\/p>\n

An Ensemble That Colors the World<\/strong>
\nThe ensemble fills in the world with well-placed strokes. Lucy Swinson, William Broshnan, Laura Domingo, Kevin Rebuli\u00e1n, and Alex Rodriguez each contribute beats that land cleanly \u2014 flashes of character, humor, and rhythm that animate the park and give the stage its texture.<\/p>\n

This production paints with intention \u2014 every detail earns its place.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their collective work creates a picture in motion.<\/p>\n

Music That Lifts the Story<\/strong>
\nDavid M\u00f6schler leads a small orchestra that plays with warmth, shape, and balance. The music fits the contours of the storytelling, supporting the performers while giving the score room to breathe.<\/p>\n

One of the best-sounding small-theater Sondheim ensembles in the Bay Area.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The sound has presence without weight \u2014 a musical world fully in sync with the dramatic one.<\/p>\n

Design That Draws You In<\/strong>
\nNina Ball\u2019s scenic design, Sophia Craven\u2019s lighting, and Madeline Berger\u2019s costumes work together to guide the eye naturally. The space shifts like the brushstrokes of a living canvas: soft hues, quiet transitions, clean silhouettes.<\/p>\n

The design choices expand the world without calling attention to themselves.<\/p>\n

A Unique Feature: Onstage Seating<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Shotgun Players onstage seating diagram. Audience members may sit within Seurat\u2019s landscape.<\/em><\/p>\n

The onstage seating option deepens the experience. Audience members sit inside the perimeter of the painting, giving certain scenes a front-row intimacy and others a surprising sense of shared space. This proximity reinforces the production\u2019s theme of stepping into the act of creation itself.<\/p>\n

Act II: A Shift in Time That Finds Its Mark<\/strong>
\nThe move to the modern era in Act II lands with clarity and lift. Imri Tate brings humor and heart as Marie, and the production handles the shift in style and tempo with a sure hand.<\/p>\n

A production that listens as much as it sings<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Connections across the century emerge naturally, through tone and rhythm rather than explanation.<\/p>\n

A Production in Conversation With Its Audience<\/strong>
\nSusannah Martin\u2019s direction leans into relationships \u2014 the small gestures, the pauses, the glances that say what words don\u2019t. The production\u2019s strength comes from this attention: scenes breathe, characters listen, and the larger themes grow organically from the smallest moments.<\/p>\n

Sondheim, distilled and alive.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The result is a story that feels fully inhabited rather than interpreted.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong>
\nSunday in the Park with George<\/em> endures because its questions endure:
\nWhat does it take to make something true?
\nWhat does it cost?
\nAnd what remains after the work is done?<\/p>\n

Shotgun Players leans into those questions with a balance of clarity and heart. The production builds its world with care, lets emotion rise on its own timing, and trusts the final image to speak plainly.<\/p>\n

When the last words arrive \u2014
\nWhite. A blank page or canvas\u2026 so many possibilities.<\/em>
\n\u2014 the moment feels earned.<\/p>\n

Quiet boldness, beautifully executed.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A vivid, resonant, and fully realized production.<\/strong>
\nA Sunday worth spending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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TO SEE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shotgun Players
\nThe Ashby Stage<\/strong>, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley<\/p>\n

Dates:<\/strong> Now through January 25, 2026
\nRun time:<\/strong> Approx. 2 hours 50 minutes, including intermission<\/p>\n

Tickets:<\/strong>
\nshotgunplayers.org\/show\/sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Box Office:<\/strong> (510) 841-6500<\/p>\n

Accessibility:<\/strong> Onstage seating available.
\nASL-interpreted and audio-described performances listed on the show page.<\/p>\n

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