By Paul Willistein

“Sunday in the Park with George” connects on multiple levels in the Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance production, through Nov. 5, Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts, Allentown.

The music and lyrics in the Steven Sondheim score, with book by James Lapine (the musical received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), state it succinctly and forcefully.

“Connect, George ... connect, George,” sings Evan Brooks, portraying Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891), the French post-Impressionist painter who devised chromoluminarism and pointillism.

Seurat’s large work, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” (81.7 in. x 121.25 in.; oil on canvas; 1884 - 1886), is inspiration and centerpiece for the musical, with a reproduction of the work lowered to hang center stage, as well as the painting being recreated by the actors in costumes nearly identical to the attire in the painting by Costume Designer Matt Riley and posing in approximately the same positions as in the painting even as the stage lighting by Lighting Designer Susan Hamburger dapples and changes and plays tricks with our eyes, not unlike Seurat’s painting.

Seeing this unfold with the three approximations of large, oversized white frames (the actual painting is displayed in a white frame at the Art Institute of Chicago) in the brilliant set by Scenic Designer Curtis Dretsch is nothing short of breathtaking.

By the time the company of 18, accompanied by a 12-member orchestra, conducted by Music Director Ed Bara, concludes the show with “Sunday,” the theater-goer is moved by a wave of emotion that ebbs and flows through the musical, giving a new view of Seurat’s “Sunday” painting and new insight into the creative process.

The Muhlenberg production’s director James Peck connects all the dots with meticulous detail in the Seurat canvas, the Sondheim score and the actors’ performances in what is one of the most exquisite productions ever mounted on a Lehigh Valley stage.

Brooks portrays Georges Seurat with an intensity that informs his excellent and powerful singing (notably, “Finishing the Hat”). Brooks also plays Seurat’s fictional great-grandson, George, as a nicely over-eager and earnest fellow who devises the Chromolume No. 7, a trippy light projection that surrounds the audience with an extraordinary light show, accompanied by the orchestra in full freak-out instrumental mode.

Kelly Shannon plays Seurat’s model and muse, appropriately named Dot, and sings splendidly (“Everybody Loves Louis”). Shannon also plays Marie, grandmother of George, with a firm, unyielding and respectful understanding of the infirmities of age.

Brooks’ and Shannon’s voices harmonize beautifully in the musical’s opening title song, as well as for “Color and Light,” “We Do Not Belong Together” and “Lesson No. 8.”

The Muhlenberg “Sunday” production, seen Nov. 3 for this review, is double-cast, with the exception of Brooks and Shannon in the leading roles.

Lella Michelson as the Old Lady is in fine voice for “Beautiful,” her duet with Brooks. The Company is stunning in the Act 2 opener, “It’s Hot Up Here.” Memorable performers include Michael Schatz (Boatman), Tommy Gedrich (Soldier), and Jess Orelus (Nurse).

While “Sunday in the Park with George” is not necessarily a toe-tapper, nor a tune-hummer, it is profoundly-entertaining. In the tremendously successful Muhlenberg College production, you don’t want the painting, er, show to end.

Tickets: Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance box office, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre and Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown; muhlenberg.edu/theatre; 484-664-3333.