Join Tony Award-winning playwright and director James Lapine and composer Stephen Sondheim in a special digital event celebrating the release of Lapine's book Putting It Together. In the book, Lapine tells the story of Sunday in the Park with George, the first of his collaborations with Sondheim. On August 3rd, the two Broadway legends will come together to discuss Putting It Together and the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that commenced their decades-long working relationship.

This will be a livestream event and will broadcast Eastern Time

Moderated By Actress and original cast member of the Off-Broadway Production of Sunday In The Park With George, Christine Baranski

Special guests Award Winning Stars of the Original Production of Sunday In The Park With George, Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters

Stephen Sondheim photo by Jerry Jackson

Book orders with ticket purchase include bookplate signed by James Lapine

About the Book:

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic musical Sunday in the Park with George

Putting It Together chronicles the two-year odyssey of creating the iconic Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George. In 1982, James Lapine, 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 nineteenth-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Through conversations between Lapine and Sondheim, as well as most of the production team, and with a treasure trove of personal photographs, sketches, script notes, and sheet music, the two Broadway icons lift the curtain on their beloved musical. Putting It Together is a deeply personal remembrance of their collaboration and friend - ship and the highs and lows of that journey, one that resulted in the beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning classic.

About the participants:

James Lapine is a preeminent director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Passion, Falsettos, Into the Woods), as well as nine Tony Award nominations, five Drama Desk Awards, a Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and a Peabody Award, among other honors. He has also been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Mr. Abbott Award for lifetime achievement in theater.

Stephen Sondheim is a composer, lyricist, and Broadway icon. He is the recipient of eight Tony Awards (including a Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), a Pulitzer Prize in Drama, an Academy Award for Best Song, eight Grammy Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, and many other honors. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015.

One of the entertainment industry’s most honored actresses, Christine Baranski is an Emmy, two-time Tony, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Drama Desk and American Comedy Award winner. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Baranski received her big break in Tom Stoppard’s hit Broadway comedy “The Real Thing." She currently stars as “Diane Lockhart” in the critically-acclaimed “The Good Fight” on Paramount+, and next year will star in the highly-anticipated HBO limited series, “Gilded Age.” She received an Honorary Doctorate from Juilliard and in 2018, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

In 1980, Mandy Patinkin made his Broadway debut as Che in the original production of Evita--a performance that won him a Tony Award and catapulted him into a decorated career in theater, film, television and music recording. While Patinkin continues to perform live, he is perhaps best known for his onscreen roles in films and television programs like The Princess Bride, Chicago Hope and The Good Fight. Patinkin originated the role of Georges Seurat in the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1984, Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.

One of the country’’s most critically acclaimed performers, Bernadette Peters is also one of its most decorated. The Tony-Award winning star of the original Broadway production of Song and Dance and the 1999 revival of Annie Get Your Gun has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Golden Globe and a host of other industry awards and nominations. Peters has recorded six solo albums and is a New York Times best-selling author of children’s books. Widely regarded as one of the greatest interpreters of Stephen Sondheim’s work, Peters originated the role of Dot/Marie in Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1984, Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Advance Praise:

“Conversations with the creators of a landmark American musical . . . Art isn’t easy, as this entertaining look at the making of a cultural touchstone amply demonstrates.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“This lovely, lively portrait in time of how a musical was made, bit by bit by its makers, is irresistible. Lapine’s pointillist approach, applied in interviews with all the distinct characters whose input colored and created the work, paints an indelible picture of the captured moment. Sondheim’s achievement, its process revealed, still gleams with the mystery of art. How does he do it? I loved it.” —Meryl Streep

“Just as Lapine and Sondheim’s musical masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George chronicles the sacrifice and struggle in the art of making art, so too does Putting It Together capture the painstaking, bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece energy of creating a new musical . . . It’s the most thorough and engaging chronicle of a burgeoning life in the theater since Moss Hart’s Act One. I didn’t read this book: I inhaled it. It’s quite a hat.” —Lin-Manuel Miranda

“When I was nineteen, I read the lyrics of Putting It Together to my mother, to say that this is what I wanted to do with my life, even though I had no idea of what ‘this’ might be. I couldn’t sing like Mandy Patinkin, I couldn’t compose like Sondheim, I couldn’t write or direct like James Lapine. But, like Seurat’s hat, that play was a window from this world to that and with this book, I can finally see how they put it together.” —Stephen Colbert

“A century after Georges Seurat reinvented painting, so two theater artists, inspired by his luminous vision, did the same for the American musical. Putting It Together is the unsparing and touching chronicle of how James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim pulled off their unlikely triumph, told in their words and those of some three dozen collaborators. Challenging themselves and Broadway conventions every step of the way, they created an audacious show of shimmering beauty that changed their lives and has transfixed theatergoers ever since. Here is how they did it.” —Frank Rich

“Sunday in the Park with George has always been like an oracle, bible, talisman and holy grail all rolled into one for the benefit of my artistic soul. Whenever I am feeling weary, jaded or frustrated I turn to this show to inspire me and help me fall in love again with my art. Putting It Together has pulled back the curtain on how this magical show was created and instead of diminishing its magic by shining a bright light on its creation, James Lapine has somehow made it that much more mystical and magical. Gratefully, I now revere the show and its creators even more than I ever thought possible.” —Audra McDonald

“Luminous . . .  In a captivating oral history Lapine revisits his experiences writing and directing Sunday in the Park with George . . . from Lapine’s and Sondheim’s early, inchoate brainstorming sessions to desperate last-minute rewrites when preview audiences hated the second act . . . This is a fascinating 360-degree panorama of showbiz at its most intense and creative.”

—Publishers Weekly