To celebrate the legacy of one of the greatest American composers, lyricists, and Broadway icons, The Town Hall and Strand Book Store will present an encore presentation of their conversation on Putting It Together with Tony Award-winning playwright and director James Lapine and composer Stephen Sondheim. The intimate digital event, which first streamed live on August 3, will be offered free of charge to the public and available to viewers from December 2-31, through The Town Hall website (viewers must sign in by December 24).
Award-winning Broadway stars Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters of Sunday in the Park with George are the special guests for the conversation, moderated by award-winning actress Christine Baranski, who was in the original Off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons. The premiere event celebrated the release of Lapine’s book Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I created Sunday in The Park with George (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), in which he tells the story of the first of his collaborations with Sondheim, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic musical and chronicling the two-year journey of its creation.
In 1982, James Lapine, then 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 19th-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The streamed discussion between Lapine and Sondheim represents a deeply personal remembrance of their collaboration and friendship, which lifts the curtain on the highs and lows of the journey that resulted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.
“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 Town Hall 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.” The presenting venues also offer thanks to the artists and publisher for their support in making this program available.
If you missed the debut livestream in August, or want to watch it again, be sure to tune in any day this month on The Town Hall website.
