Bernadette Peters Shares Vivid & Candid SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE Memories

Three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway superstar Bernadette Peters reflects on one of the most memorable musicals on her impressive resume in a new essay - the pointillism-inspired musical SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

Peters shares of the project's prospects, "I'd always wanted to work with Steve. It was a thrilling experience and such an unusual subject: a musical about the pointillist artist Georges Seurat and one particular painting, A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which is constructed live on stage."

Furthermore, Peters remembers, "They were writing it as we were rehearsing it, and still writing it after we'd opened off-Broadway in 1983. To start with, all we had was the first act, which is a complete story in itself. And then every day Steve would come along with a new song that we'd put in the show that night or the next. Every day we'd wait to see what song would appear. I remember how exciting it was when Finishing the Hat came in. By the time of the show's closing weekend we had a sketched-out second act. And then we went to Broadway and more songs came in, including Children and Art. I used to wait every night to be able to sing Move On, which got to be like meditating - it was so healing and uplifting."

Additionally, Peters says of the show, "You have your own experience of a show as a performer and then each of the audience members has theirs, too. People would come backstage and say: "Oh my God! I was crying at that moment! I couldn't believe it!" I'd be jealous of the experience they were having. When Sunday in the Park was revived in New York in 2008, I finally got to see it from their perspective. The moment at the end, when the characters in Seurat's painting all bow to him, just killed me. It's all about creativity: they exist forever in the painting because of him."

Check out the original article on the matter here.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride