No 2027 date for Sunday in the Park With George

The team behind the high-profile new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George have announced the production will no longer be staged in 2027.

Following the initial departure of original leading lady Grammy Award winner Ariana Grande in August followed by Olivier Award winner Jonathan Bailey (Company, Gielgud Theatre, American Psycho, Almeida Theatre) who quit the production a month later, producers Empire Street Productions issued a statement confirming the production would not run in 2027 as planned.

The statement went on to say Empire Street Productions would retain the rights “with a view to presenting the production in 2028”.

Produced by Empire Street Productions and presented in association with the Barbican, the high-profile production was to have been directed by multi-award-winning director Marianne Elliot with design by multi-award-winning designer and director Tom Scutt.

Sondheim and Lapine’s acclaimed work puts the spotlight on artist Georges Seurat in the months leading up to the completion of his most famous painting – A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Consumed by his need to ‘finish the hat’, Seurat alienates the French bourgeoisie, spurns his fellow artists, and neglects his lover Dot, unaware that his actions will reverberate for the next 100 years.

The musical made its debut on Broadway in 1984, winning the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards for design (and a nomination for Best Musical), numerous Drama Desk Awards, the 1991 Olivier Award for Best Musical and the 2007 Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production.

Sondheim and Lapine’s musical has been revived a number of times, including the 2005-2006 UK production which was first presented at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and its subsequent 2008 Broadway transfer. The acclaimed 2017 Broadway revival starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford had been due to transfer to London’s Savoy Theatre before the pandemic hit.

Angela Thomas