The 5th Avenue Theatre's "Sunday in the Park With George" borrows from London revival, Broadway original

It's best these days to enter a Steven Sondheim show with no ironclad expectations — musically speaking.

In recent years, with the lionized Broadway composer's blessing, directors have reconfigured some scores of his major works in high-profile U.S. and British airings.

So what does this portend for the 5th Avenue Theatre's "Sunday in the Park With George"? Will this singular musical about the life and work of 19th-century French painter Georges Seurat sport a stripped-down score and actors doubling as instrumentalists — as did recent New York stands of "Sweeney Todd" and "Company"?

Or will the pit band have a mere five musicians, as in a recent "Sunday in the Park" hailed in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory theater and later in New York?

Neither, says Ian Eisendrath, the 5th Avenue's intrepid musical director. The Seattle show is based on that hit London revival, by the same director, Sam Buntrock. But Eisendrath went "back to the original Broadway orchestrations, by Michael Starobin, for 11 musicians. We're also incorporating ideas from the London run."

Caroline Humphris, musical director for the 160-seat Chocolate Factory, approves. She notes, "I really wanted a harpist and a French horn player for our show, but the budget didn't allow it."

The 5th Avenue has both, plus a string quartet "and lots of percussion," says Eisendrath. "Eleven doesn't seem like a lot, but the sound is massive."

Since its 1984 debut, "Sunday in the Park" has arguably been best known for its innovative visual elements.

As the character Seurat works through a creative and romantic crisis, his famous painting "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte" slowly takes shape before your eyes.

In this way, Sondheim and the show's librettist, James Lapine, bring us into the creative process of blending "order, design, composition, balance, light and harmony."

The 5th Avenue also features the Chocolate Factory's designs by David Farley and projections by Timothy Bird, critically hailed as a "blend of low and high-tech made to look effortless."

But the chamber-music score is also key to the show's impact. And Broadway's Hugh Panaro, who stars as Seurat opposite Seattle favorite Billie Wildrick as the artist's mistress, Dot, says he's relieved to sing, act and leave the instrumental duties to others.

Panaro is a top Sondheim hand. He starred in the 5th Avenue's 2006 rendition of "Company" and a recent "Sweeney Todd" at the Kennedy Center, where he received some good advice.

"Mr. Sondheim told me, 'If you speak that line instead of singing it you'll get a big laugh,' " recalls Panaro. "He's not precious about you singing every line in the score. Some of his productions are too sung. It makes them seem too formal."

Indeed, Sondheim and London critics loved the musical and emotional intimacy of Buntrock's rendition. Can that be recreated in a theater as big as the 5th Avenue?

According to Eisendrath and company, that's the goal.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com