Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George

Written by James Lapine

Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan, Adam Grupper, Eva Kaminsky and 3 more

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, the two Broadway icons lift the curtain on their beloved musical. Putting It Together is a deeply personal remembrance of their collaboration and friendship and the highs and lows of that journey, one that resulted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning classic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705027844

James Lapine

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.

Reviews for Putting It Together

[Sharona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Fascinating Glimpse Behind the Scenes

James Lapine's enacted memoir of the staging of a painting as the basis of a Broadway show is both intimate and revelatory. We get to imagine its creation as if we were watching the artist painting the canvas and bringing the scene in his head into vivid reality.

[Dianna Ishiyama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is so insightful. Most theater lovers have very little understanding of how much work goes into creating art. In this book we are taken along on this very special trip with James Lapine, Stephen Sondheim and en entire group of Artists who create and Develop the musical “Sunday in the Park With George”. Like George Seurat in his very time consuming process, they find that their creative journey while very exciting is often scary, frustrating, and exhausting.

[Craig Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Detailed and intimate exploration of the writing and creation of the original Broadway production. A must for theater, musical, and Sondheim fans and professionals. Excellent audiobook production with multiple voices.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lapine narrates the creation of Sunday in the Park with George through interviews who those involved.

[kwagnerroberts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, it is good...just didn't enjoy it.

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good. Honest, generous.