Jake Gyllenhaal will return to the West End for the first time in 18 years, it has been announced.
The Hollywood star will appear in Sunday In The Park With George, opposite Annaleigh Ashford, reprising roles they first performed in New York.
Gyllenhaal last trod the boards in the UK in 2002, in Kenneth Lonergan’s play This Is Our Youth, opposite Anna Paquin and Hayden Christensen.
He will return in June 2020 for a 12-week run at the Savoy Theatre, reprising his role of 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, played by Ashford, not realising that his actions will reverberate for the next 100 years.
Gyllenhaal first appeared in the musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine at New York’s City Center in 2016, before transferring to the Hudson Theatre on Broadway in 2017.
"We love sweets as much as we love each other."~@ashleyparklady💞Tweet ur best wishes 4 our cast+crew w/#SundayintheParkwithGeorge.#FinalShow pic.twitter.com/p5giAGz5fz
— Sunday on Broadway (@SundayBroadway) April 23, 2017
He said: “Performing Sunday in the Park with George with the brilliant Annaleigh Ashford was one of the greatest joys of my career, I’ve also deeply missed the West End and so to be bringing Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical there alongside Annaleigh is both humbling and thrilling.”
Annaleigh Ashford described the play as “one of the greatest pleasures of my artistic life”, adding: ” It is an honour to play Dot again with genius Jake Gyllenhaal and to tell this story of children and art to the great city of London.”
James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim continued: “We are thrilled that a London audience will get to see the recent Broadway production of Sunday In The Park With George with Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford reprising their extraordinary performances.
“We also look forward to seeing them joined by a terrific British company.”
Previews of Sunday In The Park With George will begin on June 11 2020 and run until September 5.
Tickets are on sale now.