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Sonia described topping the list as “amazing recognition of the extraordinary people I have been privileged to work with over the year.”
“I feel very grateful to The Stage for this honour and feel extremely lucky to do a job I love so much,” she added.
Alistair Smith, print editor of The Stage, said, “Sonia Friedman has enjoyed a number of notable hits in recent years, but in 2016, she went stratospheric.
“Harry Potter has been an extraordinary success both on a box-office level and an artistic one. As long as I’ve been writing about theatre I can’t think of another show that has been as big – you’re going back to the mega-musicals of the 80s.”
It has been an extraordinary 12 months for Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) achieving incredible successes with their productions of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child Parts One and Two, Nice Fish, Funny Girl, Sunny Afternoon and Dreamgirls.
SFP’s co-production of The Dresser for BBC and Starz has been nominated in the category of Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the 74th annual Golden Globes and it was announced that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child would be opening at The Lyric Theatre on Broadway in 2018.
Sonia herself was awarded an OBE and was voted as one of the 10 most influential people in London by the Evening Standard. She is currently short-listed for Producer of the Year at The Stage Awards 2017 - an award she won at the event in both 2016 and 2015. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 27 January at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.