Ariana Grande pulls out of Barbican production and plans break from public life

Citing “endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the 33-year-old’s team told People that Grande “will be taking a step back from visibility” once the tour wraps. The decision comes days after the release of her album Petal, which arrived on Friday (31 July) alongside a music video that explicitly dramatises the toll of body-shaming. In the clip, Grande plays a performer who is told in auditions that she is “not good enough,” “desperate,” and, on a briefly shown scrap of paper, that she “couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds”. The character eventually takes a chainsaw to her detractors. Grande was set to star opposite her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey in Empire Street Productions’ staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize–winning musical. A statement from the company confirmed that the show will still open in summer 2027 as planned, with Grande’s role to be recast. “We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support,” the statement read. “We wish her nothing but the best.” The pop singer’s physical appearance has been a persistent focus of online speculation, something the Petal video appears to confront head-on. Her representativ...