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Sonia Friedman Biography

Sonia Friedman Productions is one of the West End's most prolific and significant theatre producers responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London over the past few years.

Sonia is regularly credited in the media as one of the most powerful, innovative and influential producers working in British Theatre and since 1990 has produced over 80 new productions.

Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) was formed in 2002 and has fast become one of the most dynamic, groundbreaking and prolific theatre producers in the West End and on Broadway. SFP's recent expansion will enable the company to continue presenting varied and diverse productions, but also to produce larger-scale productions beyond the West End and Broadway.

Prior to forming SFP, Sonia spent three years as the producer for the Ambassador Theatre Group. Before joining ATG she was the producer and co-founder of Out of Joint, now one of Britain's leading theatre companies.

From 1989 to 1993 she was a producer at the National Theatre, specialising in touring productions and theatre for young people.

SFP is a subsidiary of the Ambassador Theatre Group. ATG is currently the largest theatre group in the West End (London) and the second largest in the UK regions with a total of twenty-four venues.

What the press have to say...

EVENING STANDARD
Sonia Friedman listed as one of London's 1000 Most Influential People 2007.

Puts her faith in new plays and presents more of them than any other at a time when the straight play is a dying West End species. This attractive, powerful and ruthless sister of singer Maria Friedman makes cunning use of stars and, now working for herself, is to try her hand at musicals.  

To read more, click here.

VARIETY, DAVID BENEDICT

One of the U.K.’s most prolific legit producers, Friedman is immensely shrewd at the tricky business of juggling personal taste and box office potential. Over the past 18 months, her Sonia Friedman Prods. has presented 14 shows in London and on Broadway, nabbing eight Olivier nominations and four Tony nominations. Her London hits of Tom Stoppard's “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Boeing-Boeing” are Broadway-bound for the 2007-08 season. A rare and defiant commercial supporter of new writing -- a risky economic prospect -- she has around two dozen projects in development, only a few of which are new musicals. “Plays remain paramount in the repertoire of this company,” she says.

TIME OUT
Friedman is the uncrowned queen of Theatre Land who is responsible for a string of hits in the West End and on Broadway - with commercial theatre in her hands there's hope for the West End yet...

MARK SHENTON, THE STAGE AND SUNDAY EXPRESS
She's a force of nature and of nurture, in terms of bringing projects to fruition...

THE GUARDIAN PROFILE ON SONIA FRIEDMAN
I don't think there will ever be a theatre project that will be big enough, this is a woman who needs an empire...

GUARDIAN, LYN GARDNER (on Faith Healer)
Its success marks the arrival of producer Sonia Friedman as a force on Broadway. Moving in on Broadway was a natural step for Friedman, who has become uncrowned queen of the West End over the past six years.

GUARDIAN, MICHAEL BILLINGTON
The most urgent need is for dynamic young producers to succeed the senior generation. Only two have made their mark in recent years: the admirable Sonia Friedman.

THEATREGOER
There is little Sonia Friedman can't pull off...

NICHOLAS DE JONGH, EVENING STANDARD
Miss Friedman is not the old style producer - she is shrewd, adventurous, and young!

SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE - SIMON FANSHAWE INTERVIEW
The guiding light of the process is Sonia Friedman, the prodigious producer who has just earned four Tony nominations for Brian Friel?s Faith Healer, on Broadway, as well as stunning reviews for a new London production of Michael Frayn's Donkeys' Years. Despite the accolades for these revivals, though, she has a kind of demented enthusiasm for new writing.

TIME OUT
As soon as she's got one of your plays in hand you know for certain it is going to happen...

DAILY TELEGRAPH, CHARLES SPENCER
Sonia Friedman has reached the very peak of her theatrical field

Productions

WEST END and BROADWAY THEATRE INCLUDES: That Face by Polly Stenham, directed by Jeremy Herrin, Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber, directed by Samuel West, In Celebration by David Storey, directed by Anna Mackmin; Herge's Adventures of Tintin, adapted by David Greig and Rufus Norris, directed by Rufus Norris; Boeing-Boeing by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverley Cross, directed by Matthew Warchus; Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, starring Lee Evans and Jason Isaacs; Love Song by John Kolvenbach, directed by John Crowley, starring Neve Campbell, Kristen Johnston, Michael McKean and Cillian Murphy; Bent by Martin Sherman, directed by Daniel Kramer, starring Alan Cumming; Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard, directed by Trevor Nunn; Eh Joe by Samuel Beckett, directed by Atom Egoyan, starring Michael Gambon; Faith Healer, by Brian Friel, directed by Jonathan Kent, starring Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid (Broadway); Donkeys' Years by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Sams; The Woman in White, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Trevor Nunn (also on Broadway); Shoot the Crow by Owen McCafferty, directed by Robert Delamere, starring James Nesbitt, Conleth Hill and Jim Norton; Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray, directed by Simon Curtis, starring Richard E Grant; As You Like It, directed by David Lan, starring Helen McCrory, Sienna Miller and Dominic West; The Home Place by Brian Friel, directed by Adrian Noble, starring Tom Courtenay; On The Third Day by Kate Betts, directed by Robert Delamere (co-production with Channel 4's The Play's The Thing); Guantanamo: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom' by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, directed by Nicolas Kent and Sacha Wares; Endgame by Samuel Beckett, directed by Matthew Warchus, starring Michael Gambon and Lee Evans; Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clark, directed by Peter Hall, starring Kim Cattrall; By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr, directed by Dominic Cooke, starring Holly Hunter; Jumpers by Tom Stoppard, directed by David Leveaux, starring Simon Russell Beale; Calico by Michael Hastings, directed by Edward Hall, starring Imelda Staunton and Romola Garai; See You Next Tuesday by Francis Veber, adapted by Ronald Harwood, starring Nigel Havers and Ardal O'Hanlon; Hitchcock Blonde by Terry Johnson, starring David Haig and Rosamund Pike; Absolutely! {perhaps} by Pirandello, in a new version by Martin Sherman, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Joan Plowright; Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet, starring Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver, Hank Azaria and Kelly Reilly; Ragtime the musical; Macbeth, directed by Edward Hall, starring Sean Bean and Samantha Bond; What the Night Is For by Michael Weller, directed by John Caird, starring Gillian Anderson and Roger Allam; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg by Peter Nichols, starring Eddie Izzard, Clive Owen and Victoria Hamilton (also on Broadway); Afterplay by Brian Friel, starring John Hurt and Penelope Wilton; Up for Grabs by David Williamson, starring Madonna; On an Average Day by John Kolvenbach, directed by John Crowley, starring Woody Harrelson and Kyle MacLachlan; Noises Off by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Sams (also on Broadway); Benefactors by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Sams; Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Mark Brokaw, starring David Tennant (transfer to New Ambassadors); Gagarin Way by Gregory Burke (transfer to Arts Theatre - Associate Producer); Maria Friedman at the New Ambassadors; Marc Salem?s Mind Game; A Servant to Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni in a new adaptation by Lee Hall; Port Authority by Conor McPherson; Spoonface Steinberg by Lee Hall, starring Kathryn Hunter; Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet; In Flame by Charlotte Jones; The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd, starring Simon Callow; The Late Middle Classes by Simon Gray (UK tour); Last Dance at Dum Dum, a new play by Ayub Khan Din.

In 1993 Sonia co-founded Out of Joint with Max Stafford-Clark, now one of Britain's leading and most successful touring companies, with whom she is still actively involved as a Board Member. Whilst at Out of Joint, Sonia produced new plays by: The Queen and I by Sue Townsend; The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys; The Steward of Christendom by Sebastian Barry; The Break of Day by Timberlake Wertenbaker; The Positive Hour by April de Angelis; Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill; Our Lady of Sligo by Sebastian Barry; Blue Heart by Caryl Churchill. Sonia has also produced The Man of Mode, Road and Three Sisters at the Royal Court, and Our Country's Good.

She also produced Maria Friedman by Special Arrangement at the Donmar Warehouse. From 1989-1993 Sonia was Head of Mobile Productions and Theatre for Young People, at the Royal National Theatre.