DOT DOT DOT

posted by James Reel

It’s been so long since I blogged that I almost forgot I could always get a quick’n’easy Thursday post by linking to my latest drivel in the Tucson Weekly. If you haven’t kept up with my contributions during the past five months, o faithless ones, you can find my archive here. As for this week’s contribution, it’s a preview of Arizona Onstage Productions’ Sunday in the Park With George:

"It's not an easy first listen for a lot of people," says its Tucson director and producer, Kevin Johnson. "You really have to engage your mind. "This is such a hard show," he laments. "It's hard to produce, mount, direct, sing and play." Then, in the next breath, Johnson declares, "It's the most brilliant musical ever written. I've been scared to do it, because I didn't want to mess it up." Johnson has wanted to get his hands on the show since he first saw it as a teenager. He and his pal Rob Russo became so obsessed with Sunday in the Park With George that they wore out two videotapes of its 1986 PBS broadcast. For many years, Johnson dreamed of being cast as the show's title characters--in the first act, Georges Seurat, and in the second act, an imaginary descendant of Seurat's, also named George, an avant-garde artist in 1980s New York City. Johnson never got himself cast in the show, but now--something he wouldn't have imagined 20 years ago--he's directing it in Tucson.

You can read the whole thing here.