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Hardcore musical theatre nerds may remember that in 2020 we were due to get a transfer of the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 classic Sunday in the Park with George. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a typically virtuosic work by the late genius that was inspired by the pointillist painter Georges Seurat's work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and follows a fictionalised version of the artist plus – years later – his cynical great grandson.
Long story short, if the Gyllenhaal version hadn’t got gazumped by the pandemic it’s unlikely that Sunday in the Park with George would come back around so soon. But it did, and so the coast is clear for Wicked lovers Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande to reunite as leads of a fresh production directed by Marianne Elliott, with design by Tom Scutt, that’ll run at the Barbican… next summer.
That’s pretty much all we know for now, though it’s worth flagging up the fact that Elliott directed Bailey in an absolutely tremendous production of Sondheim’s Company back in 2018, so the omens are extremely good. His stage CV is rather longer than hers, but she did do a couple of shows in the US pre-popstardom and it’s actually quite thrilling to get her stage debut as a massive star.
As possibly the most musical theatre thing to have ever happened it’s clearly going to be enormously popular – one can imagine Americans might try and get involved – so while there’s a long time until it runs, you can mark May this year in your diaries is the time tickets go on sale (and they probably won’t stick around long).
Sunday in the Park with George will run at the Barbican Centre summer 2027. Tickets go on sale in May 2026. You can sign up for more information about the on sale here.
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