Pulitzer Prize-winning Sondheim musical highlights spring opening for Birmingham-Southern theatre

For Immediate Release
Feb. 7, 2019

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The theatre program at Birmingham-Southern College is taking on a challenging visual and musical masterpiece to kick off its spring season.

Sunday in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, will be staged Feb. 21-24 for the first time at BSC. The production has a company of 35 students—16 cast members and 19 crew members. Members of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra will also be performing, conducted by BSC Joseph Hugh Thomas Professor of Music Dr. Lester Seigel.

The musical, which includes such songs as “Move On,” “Putting it Together,” and “Finishing the Hat,” was inspired by post-impressionist painter George Seurat’s 1884 masterpiece “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” which took him two years to paint. It’s a depiction of a city park bathed in light, populated with children and well-dressed adults, all enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon.

“The musical has its dramatic and funny moments,” said BSC Professor of Theatre Michael Flowers, who is serving as director. “It explores everything from family connections to the struggle of being an artist.”

Sunday in the Park is a passion project for Flowers, who has spent his last three sabbaticals studying the work of Sondheim—his favorite musical theatre composer. This is challenging material for every aspect of this production, he says.

“The characters are complicated; the music is astonishing beautiful, but difficult (typical of Sondheim); and the costumes and wigs are plentiful,” said Flowers. “The use of projection software in the show adds to the level of difficulty of the piece. We are also using the stage revolve.”

The show will be performed at the College Theatre/Mainstage Feb. 21-23 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 24 at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for the general public; $10 for faculty, staff, and students. Reserve tickets by calling the Theatre Box Office at (205) 226-4780 or going online; Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 1-4:45 p.m. The 90-minute production is in two acts with one intermission. Children six and under are not allowed.

Flowers will present the Provost’s Forum “Look, I Made a Hat: The Art of Creation as Explored in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1985 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Musical, Sunday in the Park with George” on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. on the College Theatre/Mainstage. He will be joined by members of the cast and crew, along with BSC Professor of Art History Dr. Kathleen Spies. It is free and open to the public.

The theatre program will host an opening night dinner on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m. in the Stockham Parlor. Dinner tickets are $22; make reservations for dinner and/or buy tickets to the theatre production at www.bsc.edu/academics/theatre/productions.html.