Maria Friedman (Director)

With a string of awards to her name including three Olivier Awards and nine nominations, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards, and many other theatre accolades both from the West End and Broadway stage, Maria Friedman is in demand as undoubtedly one of our most successful leading musical theatre ladies.

Having won an Olivier Award for her one-woman cabaret, Maria Friedman By Special Arrangement at the Donmar (1995), she was then awarded a second for Best Actress in a Musical as Fosca in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion (1996) and again for Ragtime (2003). Most recently in the West End, Maria played Golde in the Menier’s production of Fiddler on the Roof directed by Trevor Nunn. She has also appeared in Merrily We Roll Along, Blues in the Night, Chicago, The Witches of Eastwick, Lady in the Dark, and played Anna in The King and I at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2004, she originated the role of Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White, both in the West End and on Broadway.

She is regularly associated with the work of the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. She has performed principal roles in Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George and most recently Mrs. Lovett in concert performances of Sweeney Todd at the Barbican in 2010. She also appeared in New York, Washington, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, to celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday.

Maria appeared alongside Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, and Aretha Franklin at the memorial Service for the late Marvin Hamlisch at the Juilliard School, New York. She had the pleasure of working very closely with the composer on the concert platform worldwide. In tribute to his music, she appeared in two concert performances of One Singular Sensation on New Year’s Eve at the Avery Fischer Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic alongside Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray, and again with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, with guest artists including Idina Menzel.

She has performed her critically acclaimed one-woman shows, Maria Friedman – By Special Arrangement and Maria Friedman – By Extra Special Arrangement in several venues both in the UK and New York City, including several seasons at the prestigious Café Carlyle. Maria has also performed From the Heart and Maria Friedman and Old Friends Celebrate Stephen Sondheim to sold-out audiences and rave reviews at Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly.

She can be heard on many cast recordings and has released several solo albums including Maria Friedman, Maria Friedman Live, Now and Then and Maria Friedman Celebrates the Great British Songbook.

On-screen, Maria joined the cast of the long-running soap EastEnders playing Elaine Peacock in 2014 and has also appeared as Trish Baynes in the popular TV series Casualty. She also appeared in an early series of Red Dwarf and as the Narrator in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (DVD). She was most recently seen as the Mother Abbess in ITV’s The Sound of Music Live.

In 2013, Maria made her directorial debut at the Menier Chocolate Factory with a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. After a series of five-star reviews, the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and a sold-out extended run it transferred into the West End (where it was awarded the Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical and Maria was nominated for Best Director) and Boston and is scheduled to be performed in New York later this year.

In 2015, Maria also directed a widely praised production of High Society at The Old Vic, the world premiere of the new musical Dusty at the Theatre Royal Bath and Stepping Out at the Vaudeville Theatre.

She continues to direct internationally.