The state of the art

I saw the Roundabout Theater production Sunday in the Park With George on Saturday. Holy crap, people, it was awesome. I got discount tickets through Goldstar (which offers tickets to theater, sports events, tours--whatever requires tickets, really--in most major cities, and they send out a weekly e-mail of what they offer; you can check it out here), and they wound up being front row center. The actors were so close. It was crazy. I was actually making eye contact with the actors and felt weird; like, They're looking at me! That's not how it's supposed to go! It was somewhat disconcerting.

Anyway, the show itself was great. Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell were fantastic (though her accent was a bit random in the second act). I'm having problems even articulating how great I thought they were. I don't know if it was being so close...being able to see them all the time. Watching the tears fall silently down their cheeks as they still managed to sing.

Sunday is one of the shows that gets me choked up just listening to it, so seeing it was just incredible. There were a number of moments, but the one that got me was at the end of the second act, after the reappearance of the subjects of the painting. I don't want to spoil it, but it put me completely over the edge. I managed to hold myself together at "Sunday" in the first act, but couldn't get through its reprise.

Which is not to say that it was a perfect production. As I mentioned, Jenna Russell couldn't quite figure out where she should be from in the second act (England? American South?). I'm still not sure I feel about the use of projections during "Putting It Together," though overall, I enjoyed the projections. The girl playing Louise kept hitting notes oddly--which was actually fortunate, because it kept me from totally blubbering at the end of the show.

But seriously, even the make-up was impressive--that is, not noticable even from the front row.

Anyway. Then, after the show, they announce that there's going to be a Q&A with some of the cast. Crazy! Naturally, we stuck around. Sadly, neither of the two leads took part, which is understandable (though I found out they did the one two weeks earlier!). But it was like the day just got better and better. There weren't really any huge revelations. My favorite question was when one person started talking about the "paradox" of George relating to his art, but not to the people in his life, and what did the actors think about that?

I've obviously worked myself into a state of blathering inarticulateness about this. My apologies. (I do recommend checking out this piece on Good Morning America about it.) I'll just say that if you can, go see this. Totally worth it.

Stop worrying where you're going-
Move on
If you can know where you're going
You've gone
Just keep moving on

I chose, and my world was shaken-
So what?
The choice may have been mistaken,
The choosing was not
You have to move on

Look at what you want,
Not at where you are,
Not at what you'll be...