Jake Gyllenhaal shows off his singing chops
‘Idon’t want to do the same thing over and over,” says one of the two artists played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park With
George. And he seems to be taking those words to heart, mixing up his repertoire of film roles with an assortment of stage turns (Little Shop of Horrors, Constellations) you would not expect from a Hollywood star.
Take his Broadway musical debut, an exquisite revival of Stephen Sondheim’s challenging 1984 piece about looking back, looking forward and living in the present. Gyllenhaal spends much of Act I obsessively sketching as 19th-century French pointillist painter Georges Seurat creates his A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Then, wearing the same white shirt, black trousers and blazer in Act II, he becomes Seurat’s fictional great-grandson, also George, a successful but unfulfilled artist who, 100 years later, is unveiling his latest installation.
Gyllenhaal’s approach is powerful in its subtlety. Here, Seurat is not just a distant artist caught up in his work, but a man with autistic tendencies, only connecting to the world through art. But the emotions of both Georges emerge when they sing, and Gyllenhaal has the technical chops and the acting prowess to make his big numbers, Finishing the Hat and
Putting It Together, both shine. He’s even less inhibited when he gets down on all fours to voice the thoughts of two dogs Seurat paints, in The Day Off.
His co-star Annaleigh Ashford also has a bounty of emotions to play with. As Dot, Seurat’s mistress and model, in the first act, she’s effortlessly sweet, sexy, flirty and frustrated. Then, in Act II, she turns into Dot’s offspring, Marie, the second George’s wry 98-year-old grandmother.
Gyllenhaal and Ashford harmonise not only when they’re singing –
Move On is a heart-tugging highlight – but also when George and Dot just gaze lovingly yet uncomprehendingly at each other. But it’s Sunday, the signature song that closes both acts, that brings down the house, as the 20-strong ensemble recreates Seurat’s painting. Gyllenhaal may be the main draw, but this heavenly production is stronger than any one star.