Following the unexpected commercial success of Jerusalem was always going to be a tricky task, but Sonia Friedman was up to it and in 2012 turned a Shakespeare double bill into one of the West End’s hottest tickets. Mark Rylance was, again, the big draw, taking on the roles of Richard III and Olivia in Twelfth Night, alongside Stephen Fry’s Malvolio. But, Friedman’s output during the year also extended two excellent Alan Ayckbourn revivals (A Chorus of Disapproval and Absent Friends), a touring musical (Legally Blonde) and a star-led revival of Neil Simon’s Sunshine Boys with Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths. This year, The Book of Mormon musical, an impressive looking revival of Pinter’s Old Times are already in the offing. Sonia Friedman’s name has become a consistent badge of quality on a theatre production.
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