Jonathan Bailey has stepped away from Sunday in the Park with George a month after Ariana Grande left the same production. The Barbican run goes ahead in summer 2027, with new casting to be announced.
Jonathan Bailey has withdrawn from Sunday in the Park with George at the Barbican, a month after his co-star Ariana Grande stepped back from the same production. He was to have played George, the painter Georges Seurat, opposite Grande as Dot and Marie.
In a statement Bailey said: “Ari is one of my dearest friends, and my support for her is unwavering. Marianne is extraordinary and one of my longest collaborators and friends. After much consideration, I have decided to also step back from Sunday in the Park with George.” He called the show “a real passion project” and singled out “the deep connection between George and Dot, a beautiful, devoted pairing”.
Grande’s withdrawal was announced at the beginning of August. Her representative said she would be “taking a step back from visibility” after finishing the Eternal Sunshine Tour, and taking “a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny”. The producers, Empire Street Productions, said at the time that they knew the decision “cannot have been an easy one, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support”.
The pairing was a considerable draw. Bailey and Grande worked together on the Wicked films, and this would have been their first stage work as a double act, in a musical whose two leads carry almost the whole evening between them.
The production is not cancelled. The Barbican says work on it continues, that casting discussions are “actively under way”, and that the creative team is “reshaping the production around a new company while preserving the ambition and artistic integrity” of the piece. It still opens in summer 2027.
Marianne Elliott directs, with design by Tom Scutt. The musical has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, and takes Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte as its starting point before jumping a century to his descendant.
Sunday in the Park with George plays the Barbican in summer 2027, with exact dates still to be confirmed. Tickets are due to go on sale in autumn 2026, and the Barbican has said they will be available only through its own website and box office. New casting will be announced in due course.
