London Revival of ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ Pushed to 2028 After Star Exits

The 2027 production of Sunday in the Park With George in London won't happen. Not as planned, anyway. Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey both left the project, which led Empire Street Productions to delay everything by a year. The company announced on Sept. 14 that it will retain the rights with the goal of staging the Stephen Sondheim musical in 2028. 

"The planned 2027 production of Sunday in the Park with George at the Barbican will no longer proceed as scheduled," a rep for Empire Street Productions told Variety. "Empire Street Productions will retain the rights with a view to presenting the production in 2028."

The delay marks a reversal from the producers' earlier announcement that the 2027 production would proceed with two new leads after both stars departed. They first announced the revival in January, and it would've reunited the Wicked film co-stars at London's Barbican Centre next summer.

Grande was cast as both Dot and Marie. Bailey would've played Georges Seurat across from her. The musical takes its name from a French artist's painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Bailey announced his departure at the start of September.  "After much consideration, I have decided to also step back from Sunday in the Park With George." The Bridgerton actor added that he looked forward "to seeing what the team, and the two actors who will now take on these roles, will create with it."

The show debuted in 1983 off Broadway. It got the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985. The last major revival was on Broadway in 2017, with Annaleigh Ashford and Jake Gyllenhaal playing the leads.

Tickets for the London show were supposed to go on sale in May. That date got pushed back to September to line up with the end of the Eternal Sunshine tour.

Auditions happened this summer. Some fans hoped that producers might bring in other well-known stage performers after the exits.