Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey Reunite for West End Musical Revival

Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are set to appear together in a West End revival of Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim’s musical about art, intimacy and creative isolation. The production is planned for a run at London’s Barbican Centre, with current reports pointing to a summer 2027 opening, though final dates are yet to be confirmed.

The choice of material immediately distinguishes the project from the celebrity-driven revivals that typically dominate casting announcements. First staged in 1984, Sunday in the Park With George is structured around Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The musical follows a fictionalised version of the artist as he struggles to complete his work while remaining emotionally present in his personal life. The role of Dot, his lover and reluctant muse, requires vocal discipline and emotional restraint, while George is defined almost entirely by interior tension. Bailey will play George, with Grande cast as Dot.

Photo Credit – Cosmopolitan

Grande’s return to the stage follows years spent at the centre of pop music and film, but musical theatre is not unfamiliar territory for her. She began her career on Broadway before moving into mainstream entertainment, and this project appears to mark a shift in emphasis rather than a reinvention.

Bailey’s casting brings a different kind of assurance. His theatre credentials are well established, with an Olivier Award and a body of stage work shaped by psychological clarity and control. While his recent screen roles have expanded his public profile, his reputation within British theatre rests on sustained engagement with demanding material. George, a character shaped by obsession and emotional distance, aligns closely with the kind of roles that have defined his stage career.

Photo Credit – Cosmopolitan

The production reunites Grande and Bailey following their collaboration on the Wicked film adaptation, but the context here is markedly different. Sunday in the Park With George resists spectacle and narrative ease, relying instead on structure, repetition and stillness. The contrast appears deliberate. Rather than adjusting the musical for broader appeal, the creative choices point towards a production intent on engaging with the work as written.

Direction will be handled by Marianne Elliott, whose previous revivals have prioritised character psychology and textual discipline. Her involvement suggests a staging that respects the musical’s original architecture rather than reworking it for effect. The Barbican’s history of presenting formally ambitious productions further supports the sense that this revival is positioned as a sustained engagement rather than a limited attraction.

Photo Credit – Cosmopolitan

More broadly, the project reflects a growing pattern in contemporary performance culture, where artists with mainstream visibility are seeking environments that reward process over scale. For the West End, the revival brings together public recognition and a piece of work that demands patience and focus from both performers and audiences. It challenges assumptions about how celebrity casting functions when the material itself resists simplification.

This production does not present itself as a simple revival or reinterpretation. Instead, it places two highly visible performers inside a musical that interrogates the cost of making art and the limits of personal connection. Its success will rest on whether those tensions are preserved rather than softened.