The Town Hall & The Strand to Present Encore of Lapine and Sondheim Conversation

The Town Hall and Strand Book Store will present an Encore Presentation of their conversation with James Lapine and Steven Sondheim. To celebrate the legacy on one of the greatest composers, lyricists, and a true Broadway icon, this Encore will be offered free of charge to the public.

The intimate digital conversation event with Tony Award-winning playwright and director James Lapine and composer Stephen Sondheim, which streamed live on August 3, will now be available to view from December 2-31 through The Town Hall website (as long as the viewer has signed in through www.thetownhall.org by December 24).

Award winning stars of Sunday In the Park With George, Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters were the evening's special guests. The conversation was moderated by award winning actress Christine Baranski, who was in the original off-Broadway production of Sunday In The Park With George at Playwrights Horizons, and the conversation celebrated the release of Lapine's new book Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I created "Sunday In The Park With George" (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux). Putting It Together was released on August 3.

In Putting It Together, Lapine tells the story of Sunday in the Park with George, the first of his collaborations with Sondheim. The new book takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this iconic musical and chronicles the two-year odyssey of its creation.

"In the spirit of this holiday season and in memory and with great appreciation to Mr. Sondheim, The Town Hall and Strand Book Store are thrilled to make this intimate conversation event with James Lapine, Stephen Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, and Christine Baranski available for free," said Artistic Director Melay Araya. "Stephen Sondheim has touched so many lives with his music and we are honored to share this talk with fans from around the world."

In 1982, James Lapine, at the beginning of his career as a playwright and director, met Stephen Sondheim, nineteen years his senior and already a legendary Broadway composer and lyricist. Shortly thereafter, the two decided to write a musical inspired by Georges Seurat's nineteenth-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Through conversations between Lapine and Sondheim, as well as most of the production team, and with a treasure trove of personal photographs, sketches, script notes, and sheet music, the two Broadway icons lift the curtain on their beloved musical. Putting It Together is a deeply personal remembrance of their collaboration and friend - ship and the highs and lows of that journey, one that resulted in the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.

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