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The Barbican’s revival of Sunday in the Park with George was set to be the biggest London theatre show of 2027. Then the problems started. Time Out’s theatre editor looks at what’s next for the troubled production.
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Sorry what the hell are you talking about I've missed all this?
Sunday in the Park with George is a classic Stephen Sondheim musical, set across two timelines that focus on the painter George Seurat and his cynical great-grandson, also named George. We were supposed to get a production in 2020 starring Jake Gyllenhaal, but the pandemic put paid to that. Then earlier this year it was announced that Wicked leads Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey would star in a summer 2027 revival at the Barbican, an absurdly hot ticket.
But in early August pop star Grande pulled out of all public events following the conclusion of her current world tour, amid speculation about her health. Then a month later Bailey quit via a vague Instagram statement implying he was leaving in solidarity with his friend Grande or something (but whatever the case he was definitely leaving).
Oh no! Have ticket holders been refunded?
Fortunately tickets never actually went on sale, which has saved some headaches as clearly Grande/Bailey stans would have snapped up the vast majority of the tickets.
Is the production still going ahead?
Fundamentally, it’s going to be fine. The Barbican stages a big musical every summer – in fact it was two this year – and doesn‘t need gargantuan names to do it. The play is directed by Marianne Elliott and designed by Tom Scutt, two of the biggest and most prestigious names in British theatre and while it might not be the phenomenon it would have been if Grande and Bailey had stayed the course, there is no reason it shouldn’t go ahead and do well, plus it’ll be considerably easier to get a ticket now.
So who is going to replace them?
The short answer is: we don’t know. The odds of it being two actors of equal fame, who also have history together from a major contemporary film franchise, are very low. Indeed speculation abounds that rather than casting major screen celebrities, we’re more likely to get a couple of big Broadway names, who’d be easier to get hold of at a year’s notice and would be adept at tackling Sondheim’s complex music and themes. After all, Sutton Foster – a Broadway star but hardly a UK household name – did a sensational job of leading 2021’s Anything Goes.
Rising star Micaela Diamond has been mentioned a lot as a Grande replacement, though it’s hard to say whether this constitutes actual grounded rumours or dream casting. It would of course be very funny if Jake Gyllenhaal and his co-star Annaleigh Ashford took the parts, though this does seem very implausible.
When will replacements be announced?
The tickets are currently due to go on sale in the autumn. It’s worth saying that no guarantee has officially been made that leads will be announced by then, and that tickets had previously been due to go on sale in May and then in the summer. However, it does at this stage seem overwhelmingly likely that both new leads and a ticket onsale date will be announced at some point in the next coupe of months.
What if the new leads back out, what then?
Just accept the show is cursed and move on, I guess?
Sunday in the Park with George is coming to the Barbican Centre next summer. Probably. You can sign up to be the first to be notified of any development here.
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