The 2027 West End production of Sunday in the Park With George has been canceled. The news comes after its two stars, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, announced their exits in the last few weeks, and ticket sales were pushed back twice. The production would have reunited the pair onstage following their starring roles in the Wicked films.
“The planned 2027 production of Sunday in the Park With George at the Barbican will no longer proceed as scheduled,” Empire Street Productions told The Hollywood Reporter. According to THR, though, Empire Street Productions has plans for a 2028 production as they hold the rights to Stephen Sondheim’s musical.
A representative for Grande announced the pop star would be taking a “much-deserved break” from public life in August, which included departing Sunday in the Park With George. Earlier this year, Grande released her album Petal and embarked on the Eternal Sunshine Tour, and concerns for her physical well-being mounted. “[Grande] looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” her rep said.
“We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support,” Empire Street said of Grande’s exit.
Bailey announced his exit from Sunday in the Park With George about a month later on social media. “Ari is one of my dearest friends, and my support for her is unwavering,” Bailey said in a statement shared by his team and the show’s production. “This brilliant, introspective musical has been a real passion project for me, and I feel incredibly lucky to have shared in its journey with this team. Among many things, the story explores the deep connection between George and Dot, a beautiful, devoted pairing, and I so look forward to seeing what the team, and the two actors who will now take on these roles, will create with it.”
The news comes as a shock after the production company publicized they were “actively” searching for Grande and Bailey’s replacements, which Bailey mentioned in his statement. Previews were set for summer 2027.
Sunday in the Park With George dramatizes the life of painter Georges Seurat who juggles a crumbling relationship with his muse Dot while he chips away at his magnum opus, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” The second act jumps forward into the 20th century and follows Seurat’s great-grandson George and his grandmother Marie in the contemporary art world. Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, while James Lapine wrote the musical’s book.
Sunday in the Park With George‘s original 1984 production starred Broadway darlings Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters and won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. More recently, Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford assumed the roles of George and Dot in a 2017 Broadway revival.