‘Sunday in the Park With George’ London Revival Canceled After Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey Exits
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The London revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park With George" has been cancelled after its two lead performers, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, both withdrew from the production. Producers Empire Street Productions confirmed the planned 2027 staging at the Barbican Centre "will no longer proceed as scheduled," though they intend to retain the rights and hope to mount the production in 2028 instead. The cancellation ends a closely watched project that had promised fans a rare chance to see the two "Wicked" film co-stars perform together live on stage.
Grande, cast as Dot and Marie, and Bailey, billed as the painter George Seurat, had been attached since the revival was announced in January, with ticket sales pushed back from May to September to coincide with the end of Grande's "Eternal Sunshine" tour. Grande pulled out last month, saying she needed to step back from public visibility amid scrutiny of her health, and Bailey followed with his own exit earlier this month; despite hopes that producers would recast the roles, the show has instead been shelved for the time being.
- Barbican's "Sunday in the Park With George" revival is cancelled, not recast.
- Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey both exited the production.
- Producers aim to revive the show with new stars in 2028.
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Sondheim's 1984 musical "Sunday in the Park With George" tells the story of the 19th-century French painter Georges Seurat, best known for his pointillist masterpiece "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", weaving his art and relationships into a meditation on creativity. A London revival at the Barbican Centre had been in the works, generating unusual buzz because of its casting rather than the material itself.
The draw was the pairing of Ariana Grande, the pop star turned actress, and Jonathan Bailey, known for "Bridgerton" and "Wicked", who would have played opposite each other on stage having already starred together on screen in the "Wicked" films. Empire Street Productions was behind the staging, which had been due to open in 2027 with tickets timed around the end of Grande's concert tour.
The production mattered chiefly as a rare live-theatre reunion for two performers with large, overlapping fan bases, making it one of the most anticipated West End bookings in recent memory before the casting fell apart.
Full account
The planned West End revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George has been shelved after both of its leading actors, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, withdrew from the project in recent weeks. Producers Empire Street Productions confirmed that the staging, which had been due to open at the Barbican Centre next summer, would no longer go ahead as planned, though they said they intended to mount the show at a later date.
The revival had generated considerable excitement when it was unveiled in January, largely because it reunited two stars of the Wicked film adaptation for a rare joint stage outing, staged under director Marianne Elliott. Grande had been cast in the dual role of Dot and Marie, while Bailey was to play the painter Georges Seurat, the character loosely based on the real-life French artist whose pointillist canvas A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte gives the musical its title and inspiration. Anticipation for the run was such that the ticket on-sale date was put back more than once, reportedly so it would land after the close of Grande's concert tour.
The production began to unravel when Grande announced she was stepping back from public-facing work, including the Sondheim revival, following a period of intense media scrutiny over her health and appearance at the end of her tour. Producers responded with a statement expressing understanding and support for her decision. Bailey followed suit earlier this month, saying in his own announcement that he was withdrawing out of consideration for Grande, whom he described as a close friend, while also praising his long-standing collaboration with Elliott. In the wake of his exit, Empire Street had indicated that recasting talks were under way and that the show was being reworked, fuelling hopes among fans that other performers might simply step into the roles.
Those hopes have now been dashed, at least for the time being. Empire Street said it would retain the rights to the musical with a view to bringing it to the stage in 2028, though no cast, creative team or further scheduling details have yet been announced. Sondheim's musical, with a book by James Lapine, first reached the stage in the early 1980s and had its most recent major revival on Broadway in 2017, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford; that production had once been mooted for a London transfer that never materialised because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making this the second time in less than a decade that Sondheim's ode to art and obsession has failed to reach the West End as planned.
Where outlets differ
Variety, citing its own source, describes the musical as debuting in 1983 off-Broadway, while The Hollywood Reporter refers to it as a 1984 musical (and separately notes the book is by James Lapine) — the two outlets give slightly different origin dates.
THR provides more detail on the sequence of statements, including reporting that Grande's initial withdrawal reportedly came as a surprise to some within the production, and quotes Bailey's own exit statement about his friendship with Grande and with director Marianne Elliott directly; Variety instead emphasises Bailey's earlier quote expressing enthusiasm for whichever actors might replace him and Grande.
Variety says the on-sale date was pushed from May to September to align with the end of Grande's tour, while THR says the on-sale window slipped twice, from May 2026 to summer 2026, without tying it explicitly to the tour schedule.
THR names director Marianne Elliott explicitly as part of the original announcement, while Variety does not mention the director by name.
THR adds that a London transfer of the 2017 Broadway revival had once been planned but was abandoned due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a detail not included in Variety's account.
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