The Musical as Drama

does not lie behind this musical but is actually represented in
the musical, taking shape as a tableau before our eyes. This
might seem to give a special kind of omniscience to the paint-
er, Seurat himself, the leading character of act 1 and the main
male singer. How can he sing so much if he is omniscient?
Song is for fallible performers. But most of the time Seurat
hasn’t finished the painting, and the painter who is not finished
with a painting knows he is anything but omniscient. While he
is sketching his work, Seurat is prone to sing for his characters,
give voice to them as he sketches them. Some of these figures
are also his actual acquaintances, and they have lives of their
own beyond his control.
His mistress especially has a life of her own. She is also the
model for the leading female figure in the painting, and she
wants more of Seurat’s time than an artist absorbed in his work
is willing to give. She is an invention of the musical, and her
name, Dot, is a joke about Seurat’s pointillism. She eventually
marries Louis the Baker, another figure shared between the
painting and “real” life, and Seurat has to finish the act 1 paint-
ing despite the disaster in his personal life when Dot leaves. So
Seurat’s control over his painting, which is a struggle in the
first place, leads to his lack of social and romantic control.
The real omniscience throughout this show is where it be-
longs, in the orchestra. When Seurat does complete his paint-
ing at the end of act 1, he calls for “Order, Design, Tension,
Balance, and Harmony,” and each aesthetic term is answered
by a chord from the orchestra. Seurat is moving figures around,
on the verge of finishing, the orchestra is accompanying his
every move with chords for Order, Design, Tension, Balance,
and Harmony, and suddenly the design is perfected (when
Seurat dashes into the painting, snatches the eyeglasses from a
young girl, then dashes out again) just as the orchestra an-
nounces its final chord. The orchestra retains its position of
omniscience while George completes the design, on a perfect
chord. Imagine this scene without the orchestra’s final chords
and the importance of the orchestra will be clear. Seurat could
not create this marvelous effect alone—not in a musical. He
has to have the chords.

162 CHAPTER SEVEN