Previews are a set of public performances of a theatrical presentation that precede its official opening. The purpose of previews is to allow the director and crew to identify problems and opportunities for improvement that weren't found during rehearsals and to make adjustments before critics are invited to attend.
- Wikipedia
Good luck to Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal, whose musical Sunday in the Park With George by Stephen Sondheim will begin previews this evening, February 11, 2017 at the Hudson Theater, located at 139-41 West 44th Street on Broadway. On Wednesday the 8th, Jake and his co-star Annaleigh Ashford cut the opening ribbon for the historic 1903 playhouse which was refurnished and is being used for its intended purpose for the first time since 1968. What an honor!
The musical was inspired by a painting called "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat, dated 1884.
No wonder the posters for this musical are so beautiful! And knowing this now, I had to wonder what would the ever enlightening art analyst Sister Wendy think about this painting and, lo and behold! If you know nothing at all about art, Sister Wendy can take you on the most wonderful of journeys and make you feel like you can go to an art museum and not feel so lost anymore.
From Sister Wendy's "American Masterpieces":
"Seurat's Grande Jatte is one of those rare works of art that stand alone; its transcendence is instinctively recognized by everyone. What makes this transcendence so mysterious is that the theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes: Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. Yet we never seem to fathom its elusive power. Stranger still, when he painted it, Seurat was a mere 25 (with only seven more years to live), a young man with a scientific theory to prove; this is hardly the recipe for success. His theory was optical: the conviction that painting in dots, known as pointillism or divisionism, would produce a brighter color than painting in strokes.
"Seurat spent two years painting this picture, concentrating painstakingly on the landscape of the park before focusing on the people; always their shapes, never their personalities. Individuals did not interest him, only their formal elegance. There is no untidiness in Seurat; all is beautifully balanced. The park was quite a noisy place: a man blows his bugle, children run around, there are dogs. Yet the impression we receive is of silence, of control, of nothing disordered. I think it is this that makes La Grande Jatte so moving to us who live in such a disordered world: Seurat's control. There is an intellectual clarity here that sets him free to paint this small park with an astonishing poetry. Even if the people in the park are pairs or groups, they still seem alone in their concision of form - alone but not lonely. No figure encroaches on another's space: all coexist in peace.
"This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off! In this painting, Seurat has "stopped the world," and it reveals itself as beautiful, sunlit, and silent - it is Seurat's world, from which we would never want to get off."
Sister Wendy on A Sunday on the Island of Grand Jatte
No wonder the song "Sunday" is so beautifully and tranquilly inspired.
So good luck to Jake and all of the best wishes for success in this limited run. Knock 'em out of their socks, buddy.
pic sources: nytimes, theartinstituteofchicago, ihj
our playlist: Brown Eyed Girl - Everclear
The Rain, The Park, and Other Things - The Cowsills
MacArthur Park - Donna Summer
4 comments:
Ha! I had this grand list of some 70's list and then I thought hey, should do a post on Jake's opening preview night and so that lead to different music and yet it's still oldies, although Everclear's cover of Brown Eyed Girl is not 60's nor 70's for that matter. But it's a great cover nonetheless.
Isn't Sister Wendy just wonderful? I adore her. I took a class on art and these two guys introduced us to the world of Sister Wendy and we all enjoyed her so much. She opened our eyes to the interpretation of paintings, pointing out all of these things like she did with Sunday on La Grande Jatte - situations and poses and activities that are already there in the painting but you may not have really noticed or understood what the artist may have been trying to convey. If you ever get a chance to see one of her videos, I highly recommend watching.
Those last two paragraphs on her study of the painting really helped bring to light what the artist was at least partly trying to bring out for someone like me who needs a Sister Wendy to tap at the chalkboard with a laser pointer, if you know what I mean. ;-)
And the Queen!! Donna Summer. A classic.
I saw the painting once on a trip to Chicago many many years ago. It really is beautiful and amazing. If anyone ever finds themselves in Chicago for any reason you should go see it.
That sounds great, Destiny. That would be cool to see the painting in person. I enjoyed Sister Wendy's words on the painting so much - she is so awesome.
I apologize for the lack of change in music - I've been slacking today. No excuse, been sitting here all evening watching the Grammy's and forgot, lol. Now I'm too tired to do it. Ha!
Going to try to put up a new post tomorrow anyway, so it can wait.
I tell you what, I could have blown up my Twitter today and never looked back. I was so fed up with my timeline and fed up with a particular fandom and closeted individual. Nastiness and namecalling and vulgar language all incited by a story that may be true, may be not. We will never know.
But I was greatly disappointed in what I was seeing on my timeline and while I know you have to respect people's opinions, to what extent do you need to keep looking at it?
Battery's about gone. Pretty entertaining Grammy's tonight, barring the constant camera angles on Joe Jonas, Beyonce & JayZ. I don't get Joe Jonas' high profile all of a sudden. What is up with that?
Bruno Mars did a pretty good tribute to Prince and I enjoyed Keith Urban and Carrie's duet.
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