Putting It Together

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 1984, James Lapine, then a fledgling playwright and director, met Stephen Sondheim, already a legendary Broadway composer, and the two decided to turn Georges Seurat’s masterwork Sunday on the Island of La Grand Jatte into a musical.
Through Lapine’s recollections, conversations between Lapine, Sondheim, and the original cast and crew of the production, and a treasure trove of personal photographs, sketches, script notes, and sheet music from the making of the show, the two Broadway icons lift the curtain on their beloved musical. Putting It Together delves deep into the making of Sunday in the Park with George and the story of how a Broadway icon went off-Broadway with a neophyte nineteen years his junior to create a Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning smash hit.
Review
"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. Most astonishing to me are the depth and frankness of Lapine's interviews with his many collaborators: from his tentative first steps writing with Sondheim to wary producers and personality clashes with actors, Lapine lets everyone tell their side of the story, the entire journey to the stage on the page. 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 19, 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