SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

I was rooting for Broadway veteran (and all-around lighting design big shot) Ken Billington and Sunday in the Park with George to receive a Tony for Lighting Design because the lighting is so dang impressive, eliciting gasps from audience members from the very beginning. Not merely a technical feat, the creative lighting is like a character in the musical—very fitting, considering the extreme importance of light for the artists (George Seurat included) who are the musical's central characters.

As you might already know, Sunday in the Park will end its run on June 29, 2008. The production itself is very good, marrying Stephen Sondheim's trademark intelligence to strong performances from the likes of Daniel Evans, Jenna Russell, and good ol' Michael Cumpsty.

Discounted tickets (including rush tickets) have been available for a while, but go for centrally located seats and certainly be wary of upper-level seats on audience right. The sound of the musicians, who sit in a balcony on audience right, can be overwhelming in that zone, so in this case (having learned from Myra's advice) I'd recommend seats toward the back, not the front, of the section.

As of yesterday on Talkin' Broadway, the General Rush ticket policy is as follows:

Subject to availability, a limited number of tickets are sold at the box office, when it opens, on the day of the performance. The tickets are $26.25 each and 2 tickets are sold per person. The seats are usually located in the rear mezzanine.

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MOMA: SEURAT DRAWINGS AND MAGIC LANTERN SHOWS!

In keeping with a BAT tradition of bad timing, I'm recommending MOMA's George Seurat: The Drawings on its last weekend. I am comforted, however, by the thought that my recommendation is redundant in view of the many raves the exhibition has received. And, if you miss the show, I'll also note that my affection for the show is more respectful than reverential.

I've long had ambivalent feelings for Seurat's work. It just doesn't move me or involve me or delight me very much. This show (covered by Scoboco here) enhanced my appreciation of his work, from the deft early drawings to the later experiments in texture and technique, which seem influenced by woodcuts and photography as much as theories of color and optics prevalent in Seurat's day. Among the drawings, some took my breath away—Seurat's skill with extremes of black and white is very impressive. The inclusion of samples of Seurat's colorful paintings helped me to appreciate them as alternate explorations in the graphic portrayal of light. Yet there's a cerebral, fussy aspect to his work that still keeps my enthusiasm for Seurat in check.

Meanwhile, tucked away in the MOMA lower level through March 10, 2008, there's a charming display of magic lantern work that was still popular in when Seurat walked the eart. The centerpiece of Panoramas of the Moving Image: Mechanical Slides and Dissolving Views from Nineteenth-Century Magic Lantern Shows, curated by Ernie Gehr, is the simultaneous projection of five sets of images showing the visual range of magic lantern work. If you park yourself in front of the images and observe them for about 20 minutes, you should leave with a good sense of this form of entertainment, which runs from being transparently crude (see immediately below) to glowingly beautiful (as in a countryside time-lapse display that shows up on the far right at the museum).

J. Hoberman of The Village Voice included the magic lantern exhibit in his Top 10 for 2007, along with I'm Not There and There Will Be Blood, and wrote that the museum should make it permanent. It's just a shame that the it's not being presented with sound, such as narration and music—maybe they could be adapted with sound for presentation as short subjects at the MOMA theaters.



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Here's a promotion for the American Magic Lantern Theater of East Haddam, Connecticut.



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CLARK VS. CLARK AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART!

There's still time to see squabbling brothers Sterling Clark and Stephen Clark battle it out in Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings: The Clark Brothers Collect, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Sunday, August 19, 2007.

I can't remember a more interesting ticket since Matisse/Picasso, back in '03. The Clark brothers, inheritors of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, spent long stretches of time estranged from each other while amassing significant art collections including works by Degas, Homer, Renoir, and Seurat, among others. The Met exhibit offers selections from both collections.

During a recent visit my companion Louvre and I kept track of the bout using the official point system traditionally used by art referees. As we progressed through the exhibit, we agreed that Sterling was scoring higher but we couldn't quite rule out Peter Arno collector Stephen—not when he packed surprise punches such as this Thomas Eakins portrait of Professor Henry A. Rowland, its frame festooned with arithmetical scrawlings.






























Set aside about an hour to enjoy this exhibit and read about the Clark family, which left New York City with The Dakota, Williamstown with the famous Clark Institute, and Cooperstown with the Baseball Hall of Fame!

I do have one quibble: The exhibit includes a magazine caricature of a Clark art party...but the museum neglected to provide a key to the people in the picture!


Art Credit
Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)
Professor Henry A. Rowland, 1897
Oil on canvas; 80 1/4 x 54 in. (203.8 x 137.2 cm)
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Gift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq. (1931.5)