Maria Friedman
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAR : Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman (born Switzerland, 1960) is a musical theatre actress who has worked on both the Broadway and West End stages as well as television.
Family
Maria was born in Switzerland and educated in Germany. She comes from a family who are mostly connected with the performing arts; her sister Sonia is a successful musical theatre producer, and produced Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White in which Maria starred in both London and New York.
She has two sons, Toby and Alfie.
Theatre
Maria has performed in many productions, details of some are below.
She first gained noteriety while starring in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1996, and later became one of the main leading ladies on the London Stage. She would later star in Chicago and Ragtime, both on the West End.
Most recently, she originated the role of Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical The Woman in White in the West End, and on Broadway.
As previews for the show started, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and left the show to have surgery to have the lump removed. Less than a week after the surgery she returned to the stage for the previews and performed on the official opening night. She said she would begin radiation treatment for the cancer in December 2005[link]. Unfortunately, in part due to her and co-star Micheal Ball's frequent absences due to illness, the show closed after only 108 performances on February 22, 2006.
As well as other musical shows, Maria participated in Hey, Mr. Producer!, the concert celebrating the works of Sir Cameron Mackintosh, in which she sang "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "Broadway Baby," and "How Many Tears?" Similarly, she participated in Sondheim Tonight live at London's Barbican Centre, singing "Losing My Mind" (from Follies) and "More" (from the film Dick Tracy). She has also had several one woman shows: Maria Friedman - By Special Arrangement and Maria Friedman - By Extra Special Arrangement.
She can be heard on many cast recordings; and has released several solo albums including Maria Friedman, Maria Friedman Live, and Now and Then.
Maria has won three Laurence Olivier Awards and been nominated for seven.
Partial list of productions
- Marian in London and Broadway productions of The Woman in White (Olivier Award nomination)
- Mother in the London production of Ragtime (Olivier Award - Best Actress in a Musical)
- Maria Friedman - By Extra Special Arrangement
- Roxie Hart in Chicago (Olivier Award nomination)
- Sukie in The Witches of Eastwick
- Blues in the Night
- Maria Friedman - By Special Arrangement (Olivier Award Best Entertainment)
- Fosca in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion (Olivier Award Best Actress in a Musical)
- Liza Elliot in Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark (Olivier Award nomination)
- April in Paris
- Hayyah in Ghetto
- Dot in Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George (Olivier Award nomination)
- Break of Day
- Square Rounds
Film and television
As well as her theatre work, Maria has appeared in films and television shows.
She played the narrator in the film version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and her television work includes Red Dwarf, and she regularly appeared in Casualty.
External links
- [London's Broadway Baby], a Maria Friedman fan site
- [About Maria]
- [Maria Friedman Yahoo! Group]
- [Maria Friedman Photo Archive]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.