Sunday in the Park with George (Broadway)

"Faultlessly sublime...This is a night of theatre, I will never forget. It is no wonder Sondheim and Lapine won the Pulitzer Prize for this masterpiece...With Jake Gyllenhaal as George, your heart aches...His vocals are impeccable...Director Sarna Lapine directs this 20 member cast with fluid aplomb...Lapine’s book is faultless now and Sondheim’s magnificent score reaches even farther into our beings, to transport us to musical heaven." Full Review

"A jewel in its own right, radiant with talent, and shimmering with color and light...Heading a stellar, multi-ethnic supporting cast as well as Sondheim’s achingly beautiful musical score...This production will hold you enraptured throughout and leave you nearly spent of all emotion at its conclusion...This is a production for the ages, as good as it gets, a performance so exceptional, so overwhelming, you might be lucky enough to see something like it once, maybe twice in a lifetime." Full Review

"Revelatory...This is a spectacular revival and the principals are simply breathtakingly good. The performances are assured – indeed, they’ve only grown in confidence. Moreover, the semi-staging by Sarna Lapine reveals (as if we needed reminding), one of the most beautiful, moving and endlessly inventive scores ever written, not to mention the equally ambitious and rewarding book that frames it." Full Review

"The production has elevated an affecting work into something quite rare and exquisite. Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford bring richer shadings and startling emotional candor to their dual roles, supported by a gifted ensemble...Staged with grace and fluidity by Sarna Lapine...I don't recall ever experiencing the binding unity of creative vigor and purpose with such piercing solitude that Gyllenhaal brings to the two parts." Full Review

"Every once in a rare while, the theater rewards us with a kind of transcendent experience...Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford step up alongside Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in the treasured place where I keep memories of the original 'Sunday in the Park With George.' They are that good...The production is less extravagant than others, but no less magical...The rest of the cast is equally splendid." Full Review

"With just a simple approach, every element here feels precise and correct...Ashford is marvelous...She’s so good and so gracious with Gyllenhaal that they really feel like a team up there...Gyllenhaal is excellent, surely acting this role as well as anyone ever has...They connect their two roles so seamlessly that the show has never felt so whole and complete to me, a unified work of perfection...Marries melody and lyrics and intellectual ideas with heartfelt emotion." Full Review

"We get not just humanity and warmth, but intimacy, tenderness, bursts of humor, and flashes of tremendous beauty -- we get, in effect, as accomplished a production of 'Sunday in the Park with George' as we are likely to ever see...What could be a mere exercise in coy postmodernism becomes something moving and true...This revival makes the strong case that 'Sunday in the Park with George' is Sondheim's crowning achievement." Full Review

"A perfect fairy tale for adults...In this beautifully staged production, the emotional pull of George and Dot’s love story overrides the intellectual. This is due in large measure to the altogether charming lead performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford...This 'Sunday in the Park With George' is about as perfect as a semi-staged concert version of musical theater can get - a transcendent delight." Full Review

“I find this musical so brilliant, it's hard to even write about it coherently…It was extremely intimate and personal and made each performance choice and song lyric stand out…Each of the performances were also so detailed and so lovingly portrayed...I thought Gyllenhaal was amazing and I just can't get over his wonderful singing. Not only does he have lovely tone, but his diction of the incredible lyrics was perfect…Annaleigh Ashford was a wonderful Dot.” Full Review

"Gyllenhaal turns out to have a wonderful singing voice that brings passion to Sondheim’s complicated (and glorious) score. This musical may be about art, but the terrific chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Ashford makes it more than ever about love, too...'Sunday In the Park with George' is such a gorgeous musical that I worried if it could be as good as I remembered it. And it turned out to be even better. Gyllenhaal and Ashford bring masterful emotion and meaning to the score." Full Review

"Something deeper than love — closer to religious gratitude — is the sentiment you may experience in the finale that concludes the first act of the marvelous revival...This interpretation comes across with more personal, in-the-moment intimacy than any I’ve seen...Mr. Gyllenhaal invests every note he sings with the rapt determination of someone trying to capture and pin down the elusive...Ashford's performance at City Center was charming; this time, it’s much more than that." Full Review

"Its comparatively modest production values allow more focus on the excellent acting and the superior quality of the incisive words and emotion-draining music. This is one of the American musical theatre's finest literary creations...Jake Gyllenhaal's formerly soft take on Seurat has developed more desperate dimensions. Aided by a much stronger singing voice, he gets the point across that Seurat sees his own self-worth in his creations...A sparkling production of an important musical." Full Review

"Jake Gyllenhaal’s got it, by George! A handsome, nimble singing voice to go with his solid acting chops, that is...Its power to stir the heart and head with its radiant score and unfading story about the art of making art — and love — is as strong as ever....The staging by Sarna Lapine remains efficient and spare...The stars are even better than before...A fine supporting cast that includes Robert Sean Leonard, Penny Fuller and Ruthie Ann Miles helps connect all the musical dots." Full Review

“The great score, brilliant lyrics and witty storytelling make for a one-of-a-kind theatrical feast to be relished by anyone interested in musical theater…The current production is a treat whether you've seen it before or not…Gyllenhall's lyrical tenor voice and acting are as rich and colorful as those pointillist dots we see him dab on his canvas…The equally remarkable Ashford brings thrilling vocals and a great depth of feeling to the bittersweet artist-model romance.” Full Review

"One of the most profound musicals ever written...Gyllenhaal makes these iconic roles his own...Many of Sondheim’s songs here, while not altogether conventional, are among the finest ever penned for theater...It’s true that Gyllenhaal and Ashford basically do all the metaphorical heavy lifting here, but one must be grateful for the star-studded supporting cast...Go with your gut and don’t miss this rare opportunity to see this very special production of a very special show." Full Review

"The production is simple and direct. Stripped to its barest essence, the musical becomes an emotional feast as well as an intellectual one...Gyllenhaal proves you can be a major movie star as well as a musical talent...Gyllenhaal widens his range with a dazzlingly intense vocal and dramatic rendition of George’s conflict between his art and his personal life. Annaleigh Ashford displays exquisite pipes, timing and presence." Full Review

"Terrific production—by which I mean everything and everyone involved it is terrific...If Gyllenhaal and Ashford are the name draws, don’t be surprised when you fall absolutely under the spell of the entire ensemble...The actual artistic installation, 'Chromolume #7,' is the most stunning visual aspect of this production...much like the production itself, mesmerizing and beautiful to watch." Full Review

"The production dazzles with a superb performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, a movie star who until now has pretty much kept his musical theatre talents under wraps...The realization of the Chromolume, with its dots of light floating over the audience, is thrilling, and the performances of Gyllenhaal and Ashford continue to inform the work beautifully." Full Review

"The musical strikes a resonating chord—both in terms of its exploration of the creative process of making art, as well as the personal relationships that can crumble in its wake...Ashford is adept at interpreting lyrics and Sondheim gives her a full sandbox to play in. Gyllenhaal, too, is not afraid to approach the score with riveting intensity...'Order. Design. Tension. Balance. Harmony'...These words appear so simple. But it takes masters like Sondheim and Lapine to bring them to life." Full Review

"Gyllenhaal adds vital, measurable wattage on the masculine half of the musical ledger...Gyllenhaal and Ashford create the kind of lust-driven connection that just may rise above the memorable heat generated by Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters...Deftly guiding a 20-member cast through a musical that delves movingly into the ways visual artists teach us never to take for granted what’s in plain sight, the director reminds us again of Sondheim’s own unstinting art." Full Review

"Challenging but evocative...Gyllenhaal has the colossal task of playing the roles originated by Mandy Patinkin. His approach is powerful in its subtlety...Harmony and connection, two words that pop up repeatedly in the show, abound, not just between the leads but among the entire 20-person ensemble. Gyllenhaal may be the main draw for ticket buyers, but this heavenly production is stronger than any one star." Full Review

"Gyllenhaal is outstanding. The even better news is that he's at best the third most compelling thing on stage...The most striking performance in this revival comes from Annaleigh Ashford...The staging, by Sarna Lapine, is exceedingly straightforward...There is no coup de scenery, in the musical's gorgeous Act One climax...But the material is so strong, and the cast so good, that this Sunday remains deeply affecting...Like Seurat's painting, it is, and remains, a masterpiece." Full Review

"Ashford delivers a subtle performance–as serious as it is humorous. Gyllenhaal, however, is masterful in his own right....There is an essential nostalgia to the production that is belied by the uniqueness of its style. Indeed, there is no other musical like it, still it stands on the shoulders of all great musicals...Helmed by Sarna Lapine, there is genuine daring to her directorial concept, which underplays the romanticism of the musical composition...It is all simply divine!" Full Review

“Gyllenhaal brings an organic intensity to the role of George and nails Sondheim’s complex phrasing with aplomb…What makes ‘Sunday’ arguably Sondheim’s best musical is how it works seamlessly on different levels. It’s a vividly imaginative peer into the creative life of a famous artist but also a heartbreakingly personal account of what it’s like to love someone who’s on a markedly different path.” Full Review

“In my opinion, this is the most perfect score ever written for the musical theatre. The complexity of Stephen Sondheim's work, and the way in which it mimics Seurat's pointillistic style, is a marvel. It is highbrow and cerebral, yet also emotionally resonant and accessible...Ashford was able to mine out every little nugget of comedy…Jake Gyllenhaal is thoroughly impressive as George. You'll be shocked when you hear him sing.” Full Review