Art News

‘Red’ Examines Rothko’s Art, the Artist, the Act of Creation

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- “What do you see?” They are the tantalizing first words of “Red,” John Logan’s engrossing, often enthralling new play about art, an artist and the act of creation. Not since “White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities.” — the final thoughts from the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical “Sunday in the Park With George” — has a statement produced such a shiver of anticipation and exhilaration. And like “Sunday,” a musical about French painter Georges Seurat, “Red,” which opened Thursday at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, focuses on a famous artist, American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. But unlike “Sunday” and its impoverished hero, “Red” depicts a financially successful man, critically lauded in his prime, yet growling about art, his fellow artists and life. And the