In Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s masterwork about the art of making art, Patinkin played both Georges Seurat in 1884 and his artist great-grandson a century later.
James said, “Do you draw?” My father always used to make a joke about how he could draw a box, where you draw one box and then you put the other box inside and then you connect the four lines.” I said proudly, “Well, that’s all I can draw.”
I would sit in rehearsals, and every night, I would draw Bernadette on my easel pad in the very first scene when she sang “Sunday in the Park With George.” My dresser, James Nadeau, saved every sketch pad, and he gave them to my wife, unbeknownst to me. She had them bound in a gorgeous book, and I occasionally take one out and give it to somebody as a gift. — Mandy Patinkin // NY Mag's 29 BROADWAY LEGENDS (April 2025)
