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What we know about SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE starring Ariana Grande & Jonathan Bailey in London
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Mickey Jo Theatre
I will say when I went to the Art Institute of Chicago in order to see the painting by Georges Seurat, An Afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte, I was offered neither a cute little chair nor the companionship of Jonathan Bailey. So once again, Ariana Grande won. Mickey Jo Theatre 0 oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. Welcome to another Theatre News Update. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things Theatre as a critic and content creator here on social media and a few weeks ago I discussed the rumour of Wicked movie stars Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey reuniting, this time on stage in a brand new London revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical Sunday in the park with George. The rumors had at that time been substantiated in Deadline. Earlier today in image was posted between their two Instagram accounts which seemed to confirm the rumors. And then a few hours later news was officially shared via press release that this was real and it was happening, albeit not necessarily very soon. So as promised, I am back here today to give you an update about everything we know and everything else that we can decipher or predict about this upcoming production of Sunday in the park with George, including the scarcity of tickets, as well as my own personal opinion based on the caliber of the actors and creatives involved, about whether or not this is going to be a really great production of the show. Of course, those will just be my thoughts, and as always, I would love to hear yours in the comments section down below. Are you excited for Sunday in the park with George? Do you have any misgivings about this production? Are you going to try and get tickets? Are you going to travel from elsewhere around the world? If so, where do you plan to travel from? And if you enjoy listening to my thoughts, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. Or I have a new third thing to plug. It's very exciting because, you know, if anything, these introductions weren't long enough. I now have a free substack newsletter which keeps you up to date with everything that I share across the Internet, across various social media platforms, as well as providing a little bit of an update as to the shows that I've recently seen and the shows that I am about to see. If you would like to read that, you can sign up in the description. In the meantime, let's talk about Sunday in the park with Jonathan and Ariana. Good luck writing a melody to that, Steve. I'm joking, it's Sondheim. Even from beyond the grave, he can do anything. So I don't necessarily need to recap the rumors around how the idea for this production came to be. Essentially Jonathan and Ariana starring together, doing the press tour for Wicked, getting asked a lot about what shows they might like to do on stage, I assume that Jonathan was approached by director Marianne Elliott to do Sunday in the park with George, and he may have then said, you know, who would Be great in this. Ariana or Marianne Elliott may have said. And could you ask your friend Ariana? It's that thing of when you want somebody cool to come to your birthday party, but you don't want to ask them directly. So you're like, could you. Could you see if Shelby wants to come later this evening? Could that. Because that would be great. In any case, it makes complete. Sen would want to do it. It's a very fulfilling role for an actor who does musical theatre, but has also done meaty roles, Shakespearean roles. And for Ariana, it's a really prestigious return to the theatre world, to musical theatre on stage. Something that she hasn't done since she appeared on Broadway when she was significantly younger in Jason Robert Brown's adolescent led musical 13. And Ariana, during all of the press around the Wicked films, has signaled on more than one occasion that she would like to make a substantial return to. To musical theatre. She talked about wanting to kind of shift up her professional priorities so that she made more time for future stage appearances. And this is a fantastic way to perpetrate a meaningful stage return because it's a big role, it's a celebrated role, it's Sondheim. I think it has within it a lot of the characteristics that would suit her, but it's also not hugely demanding. It's not an Evita, it's not something where it's just on her shoulders. It's shared between the two of them. And if there's one thing we already know, it's that those two have fantastic chemistry. In fairness, Jonathan Bailey also had fantastic chemistry with the chair that he was sitting on in that Instagram picture. He had fantastic chemistry with the people in the painting. It's Jonathan Bailey. Anyway, since that happened first, let's actually take a look at that first before we read from the press release. Now, I can't see how many times it's been liked. Nine hours after being posted, it's had just over 5,000 comments and upwards of 22,000 reshares. It having been posted collaboratively between Jonathan bailey, who has 6.3 million Instagram followers, and Ariana Grande, who has 372 million Instagram followers. What a number to even compute with the caption. All it has to be is good, a lyric sung by the character of Dot IN the title song Sunday in the park with George. All it has to be is good. I think there was one outlet that reported this as being a lyric from Finishing the Hat and my brain nearly exploded. Those are the kind of people who get to do interviews at the Tony Awards and it upsets me. Anyway, it's a very cute little image here of the two of them at the Art Institute of Chicago, casually attired, sat in the room where this painting is on display, facing away from the camera, but turned towards each other in conversation, just slightly out of focus. It's a lovely little artsy shot that told us everything we needed to know about the news that was to be announced. It also conveys a sense of seriousness and of actors already kind of digging into this story and these characters, the story being inspired by this painting. And I would tell you a little bit more about the plot and the material of Sunday in the park with George. For anyone who might be an Ariana Grande fan or the wicked fan who isn't familiar with the show, it sort of defies description. What I will say is that there is a significant divide tonally and in terms of the setting between the first and second acts. And generally speaking, it is about the sort of self sacrificial process of devoting oneself to one's art in spite of affairs of the heart. Perhaps. I also say all of this having never seen the show on stage. I've watched various recordings. I've not had the chance really to see the show on stage. Don't me with that out of the way, let's talk about this press release and what has actually been confirmed. So Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande to star in a new production of Sunday in the park with George. Stephen Sondheim's legendary musical performances will begin at the Barbican Centre which I don't think had been mentioned in the rumours. Maybe Deadline talked about that. I definitely said in my last update on this that that was what I had been hearing and also that that would make a lot of sense. This is going to be in London in summer 2027. So yes, we're going to have a little bit of a long wait ahead of us. The Barbican this year is hosting a revival of the Cole Porter scored musical High Society in an attempt perhaps to replicate some of the success that they have found in previous years. It does feel like they've been chasing the high of the Sutton Foster led Anything Goes transfer. They brought it back next year with a different star. It wasn't quite as hot a ticket. A couple of summers later they mounted a revival directed by Bartlett Sher of Kiss Me Kate, Once again Cole Porter, Broadway leading lady Stephanie J. Block and this year High Society starring Helen George and Felicity Kendall, known for their work on Stage, but predominantly for their appearances on screen. In the years in between some of these shows, however, the Barbican has also hosted productions of A Strange Loop, an Ostermaier version of the Seagull starring Cate Blanchett. So you know they're no stranger to big celebrity names and quickly selling shows, as well as many productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company. But the key thing that you need to know about the theater is that the auditorium is is of a decent scale, just over a thousand seats in capacity, and the stage is vast. It's just huge. Which makes the possibilities of the set design here very exciting. It could, schedules permitting, easily transfer to Broadway, though admittedly Broadway has seen a Sunday in the park with George revival quite recently. I do imagine, though, that audiences wouldn't turn their noses up at the chance to see Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande in New York. What I don't expect is this production moving from the Barbican into the West End with these two still attached for a longer run. I dare say that this limited summer timetable is the only thing they'd be able to commit to in London. If New York was on the cards, then something else might be arranged. It seems likely to me that Ariana is going to want to do Broadway at some point. And hell, Johnny Bailey too for that matter, because you know, the company revival that he won an Olivier Award for transferred, but he didn't reprise his performance. In any case, let's carry on with the info here. So London at the Barbican Summer 2027 tickets. Here's what you need to know. Will go on sale in May 2026 and will only be sold via the official Barbican website and box office. To be the first to hear details and all further information about the production, you can sign up. And I regret even telling you this because I feel I'm gonna have to be battling people away. You can sign up at www.sundayintheparkmusical.com know with George about it Sunday in the park musical and I don't believe at this time we have any more specific timings. When they say summer, the usual Barbican summer slot tends to begin in like late May or early June, around that kind of a time, I think. But this, you know, everything about this production is going to be dictated by the availability of these two huge stars. So there's nothing particularly usual about it. You would anticipate, as with any kind of a big summer run, it going through the first week of September, just like Evita did at the.
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Mickey Jo Theatre
London Palladium. Now another little rumoured piece of information has been confirmed here that the production, which has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, will be directed by Marianne Elliot, who directed that company revival that I told you about before, as well as acclaimed productions of Warhorse and the Curious Incident of the Doc, Dog in the Nighttime, Heavyweight director Marianne Elliot. That much we already knew. But we have one other member of the creative team who has been confirmed and I love, you know, they probably have a couple other people either in mind or lined up for this. I love that they have released this one name because it already makes me very excited and it is a creative who is very much on the rise. This is designer Tom Scutt, who is credited as, yeah, just design for this production. So presumably as he has done before, set and costume, and that makes me thrillingly excited. Tom Scutt worked on the recent West End and Broadway revival of Cabaret at the Kitkat Club, as well as the West End and touring revival of Fiddler on the Roof, starting at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, and the current revival of into the woods at the Bridge. And what Tom Skutt can do with Trees is breathtaking. I'm so excited because this production is quite possibly going to feature trees. It's going to be really interesting to see the extent to which it incorporates technology. Marianne Elliott is known for innovative productions with fascinating and unique visual language and a lot of moving set pieces. Very technologically inclusive. Not cameras on stage, not that whole European thing of people acting to cameras and us all diverting our attention towards screens, although there's every possibility that that might end up in this as well, though I don't expect it to. The most recent major London revival of Sunday in the park with GE back in the 2000s, starting at the Minier Chocolate Factory, which then transferred to Broadway, began to be a little bit more of a technologically inclusive production with, I believe, video design and perhaps projection elements But I dare say, in any case, that we're going to have trees and Tom Scutt does a lovely tree, everything that Tom Scott looks fantastic and characterful on stage. A certain amount of the aesthetic of the first act is kind of dictated by the painting itself, but the way in which you realize that in a space like the Barbican, which is huge, is going to be so interesting. Had you asked me to dream up a creative team for the best possible production of Sunday in the Park With George anywhere in the world right now, I probably would have talked about Tom Scutt as a designer. And circling back to Marianne, who has worked far more with plays than with musicals, I am so very intrigued by the concept of her working on a Sondheim show that isn't reworked. I very much enjoyed Company for what it was. I wish I had seen it a second time, because my only visit to the show was spent sort of really reacting with a little bit of theatrical whiplash to the many changes of character in the material. But with this, with Sunday in the Park With George, I feel as though it's never been sort of brought beyond the confines of the original material, other than, like, I think there was a production in New Jersey in early 2025, perhaps with, I think, like, Graham Phillips was playing George and Talia Siskawa maybe, and there were, like, dance elements involved. But otherwise, with the major revivals of the production, with the regional revivals of the product of, which have been seen in the UK for the longest time, by the way, they tend to all look and feel pretty similar. And I think a lot of that comes from a certain amount of reverence for this original production, which was professionally recorded, so you can still see it. So every element of that production sort of lives on. I don't think Marianne Elliott is one to follow in the footsteps of any creative who has come before her. She is, above all other things, innovative. And I'm excited about what that means for this production. I'm excited for a production of Sunday in the Park With George, which, you know, inherently examines to a certain extent this kind of toxic central male character through a female lens, with Ariana Grande as her dot. I think that's incredibly exciting. Now, I spoke about this a little bit before, but let's talk about whether or not I think Jonathan and Ariana are good fits for these roles. And I am more confident about her in the first act. I'm more confident about him in the second second. And that's because the character that she has to transition to in the Second act is going to be interesting. That is going to be a sort of a more challenging one, because it's not that she reads very young on stage, it's just that there is a youthful charm about her. It's why she was able to play Glinda in the first part of Wicked as well as she was. I think Ariana is going to be great in that first act, regardless, which is where her best material is, because she is sweet. I think she's a great actress. I think she is a brilliant comedian. And so I think, you know, while being tonally very different to Bernadette Peters, who originated the role of Dot, she in many ways feels like an heir apparent. I already think her rendition of the song Sunday in the park with George is going to be hysterically witty and her performance of some of the later moments of the first act, I think is going to be heartbreaking as well as sounding fantastic. And she herself has a great deal of reverence for. For musical theatre and for material like this. So I imagine we're going to get a slightly more legit musical theatre voice from her. She's actually a very adaptable vocalist with a very malleable voice. She does a great many impressions and sings in many different styles. So we will have to wait and see, or should I say wait and hear what her interpretation of this score vocally is going to sound like. Meanwhile, Jonathan Bailey will be brilliant, I think, in the second act. In the first, I think he'll do a fantastic job. I sort of just wish that he would stop ending up on stage, at least in these minimally charismatic and minimally charming roles, because it so flies in the face of all of his personal qualities. And I know the man is an actor, and I'm not just saying that I want him to constantly play himself, but I feel like a big part of the success that he has suddenly found on screen has been him stepping into roles that better allow him to do that. In the various projects that he has had, I feel like they allow him to be charming. And George in Sunday in the park with George, I feel like he's going to have to suppress a lot of his own natural charm and charisma to deliver a sung monologue like Finishing the Hat. That's a song of sort of stubborn, insistent emotional indifference through which the truth of his real regret begins to emerge. And while we're here, even though we have some 17 months until this production is going to commence, let's speculate a little about supporting cast members who we might see and truthfully, there aren't many really great roles outside of these two. But given that this is Marianne Elliot, who has a way of convincing brilliant actors to join her companies, including Patti LuPone in that last company revival, I'm curious as to whether any other sort of Sondheim legends may be encouraged to come into this production. Any actors who starred in previous productions of Sunday in the park with George, Maria Friedman, who was part of the original London cast at the National Theatre, as well as stars of subsequent productions, Anna Jane Casey, Jenna Russell. Wouldn't shock me if that particular role that I'm thinking about went to someone like Eliza Sadovy instead. There are some decent roles for younger emerging rising stars in there as well. A lot of the current young cast members of the into the woods revival would be great in some of those. But again, this is going to be like summer next year. The landscape could look very different. There could be a whole new set of promising talents by then. I'm suddenly wondering whether we're going to get a real dog on stage, as if anything could be more exciting than Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande, they add an actual dog into the mix. Generally speaking, though, because Marianne Elliott is at the helm, I do trust the creative vision for this production. I think between these two stars we're going to get a pretty great version of this show. There would be a little less pressure on the thing if it hadn't been so long, like nearly 20 years since the show was last seen in London. So, you know, fingers crossed, it's really good. And also fingers crossed I get tickets. Which brings me to my final point of consideration.
- [20:30]
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- [20:59]
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Mickey Jo Theatre
Now the reception to this already beyond. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Has been for a lot of people to complain about the in availability of tickets a long time before they have even gone on sale. And we don't need to rush to try and scramble towards our debit or credit cards just yet, because like I said, it's going on sale in May 2026 and May the odds be in all of our favours. And I struggle with the notion that these tickets ought to be in some way earmarked for legit musical theatre fans or legit Sondheim fans, rather than fans of Ariana Grande, who are going to be very excited to see and support her on stage. And it might surprise you that I'm taking that position and I understand where it's coming from. And again, I don't think this would matter quite so much if we weren't so starved for A Sunday in the park with George or for London Sondheim revivals in general. There was this rumor that when Stephen Sondheim's old friends was playing at the Gielgud produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, he had either passively or actively suppressed other Sondheim revivals being produced alongside. But in any case, for a decent stretch now, until really into the woods opened at the Bridge, we were sort of starved for major revivals of the better known Sondheims. And we had Pacific Overtures off West End and we had the Frogs off West End, but you know what I mean. Usually there are loads of Sondheims regionally and in London, and it's been a little while. Luckily there are plenty more for us to look forward to this year. Sweeney Todd is happening in Birmingham, a little night music is happening in Manchester, and then next year, year more that I am hearing about, but particularly Sunday in the park with George. If we can get tickets now, it's going to run for a decent couple of months over the summer. I still think it's going to be something of a bloodbath because, like I said, Ariana Grande with however many hundred million Instagram followers, and it's not just the prospect of seeing her on stage again like at one of her tours, this is her doing musical theatre. I think it's in some ways kind of even more special. I think it's a uniquely special opportunity for her fans to see her in that capacity doing something that she genuinely loves. We kind of, I think, have to make space for that and accept that and accept that they are just as entitled to see that thing that they want to see, as we are entitled to see that thing that we want to see, which is Sunday in the park with George. I also think we need to be very careful about the language we're using when we are sort of preemptively being concerned about theatre etiquette being disregarded. I think instead we should be welcoming people into the theatrical space and maybe like remind finding people at any opportunity about theatrical conventions for people who may be coming into a theater for the very first time. But you know, those same fans would have gone into a movie theater to go see Wicked and hopefully behaved themselves there. And I would speculate that there's more likely to be issues with them trying to quietly sneak a photograph than them like screaming in the middle of a scene. It's also not something that director Marianne Elliott is going to be any kind of a stranger to. She has worked with big celebrity names before. What I will say is don't expect tickets to necessarily be inexpensive. Pay attention to when exactly they are going to be released. As we approach May of this year, whether there is going to be any kind of a pre sale that you can sign up to or for Barbican members. Also, strange as it may seem, don't give up hope if the whole thing appears to be sold out before you have a chance to get tickets. Early last year I actually grabbed a last minute ticket to the Seagull starring Cate Blanchett, which had been returned on the Barbican website, I believe. Believe so. It's never really over until it's over and we can manifest the possibility of this production going somewhere afterwards like Broadway. But I think it would be willfully naive not to anticipate a decent amount of popularity when this does go on sale. There is, however, no sense in getting nervous about it, if only because that isn't happening for a few months and the production itself isn't happening for more than a year. Who knows what all of our lives are going to look like by then? And since I neglected to mention this earlier, who knows at this stage what this production is going to look like? The only artwork that we have received, received is the title treatment in a sort of inky black calligraphy font over this sort of. I'm going to embarrass myself here by whatever I call it. This sort of like woven background canvas, I think is the word that I was looking for. Conjuring images of, you know, art and painting, but very little else. No colour at this stage for now. I think that is absolutely everything that we are able to glean about this newly announced revival of Sunday in the park with George. If more is announced about it between now and next summer then I will be sure to let you know. If you don't want to miss that update, then make sure you're subscribed right here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. Stay tuned for plenty more theatre news, reviews and exciting theatre going vlogs coming throughout this year. I hope that you've enjoyed listening to this theatrical news recap. I have been Mickey Jo and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day Subscrib.
- [26:43]
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