Back to News & Press New Cast Members Announced for The Ferryman Thursday, 31 August 2017 Maureen Beattie , Charles Dale , Laurie Davidson , Sarah Greene , William Houston , Ivan Kaye , Mark Lambert , Catherine McCormack , Fergal McElherron and Glenn Speers will join the company from October 9th 2017. The original company will give its final performance on October 7th 2017, following which the cast will be comprised of: Maureen Beattie – Aunt Maggie Far Away Charles Dale – Father Horrigan Laurie Davidson – Shane Corcoran Fra Fee – Michael Carney Stuart Graham – Muldoon Sarah Greene - Caitlin Carney William Houston – Quinn Carney Ivan Kaye – Tom Kettle Mark Lambert – Uncle Patrick Carney Carla Langley – Shena Carney Catherine McCormack – Mary Carney Fergal McElherron – Frank Magennis Conor MacNeill – Diarmaid Corcoran Rob Malone – Oisin Carney Dearbhla Molloy – Aunt Pat Carney Glenn Speers – Lawrence Malone Niall Wright – JJ Carney As previously, the full company comprises 37 performers: 17 main adults, 7 covers, 12 children on rota and 1 baby. The Ferryman , directed by Sam Mendes , will run at the Gielgud Theatre until 6 January 2018. The production won widespread critical acclaim when it opened at the Royal Court and was the fastest selling show in the theatre’s history. This phenomenal success has continued at the Gielgud Theatre where it has been playing to sold-out houses, with early morning queues on Shaftesbury Avenue for the £12 day seats each day. The Ferryman is currently booking until 6th January 2018. The Ferryman is directed by Sam Mendes , designed by Rob Howell , with lighting by Peter Mumford , and sound and original music by Nick Powell . Up Up

Back to Productions LEOPOLDSTADT – DIGITAL Leopoldstadt, Tom Stoppard's Olivier Award-winning new play, directed by Patrick Marber is screening via National Theatre HOME. ★★★★★ Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece. Magnificent. The Independent At the beginning of the 20th century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. But Hermann Merz, a factory owner and baptised Jew now married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. We follow his family’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. A company of 40 actors represent each generation of the family in this epic, but intimate play. ★★★★ Tom Stoppard delivers an unforgettable play from the heart Telegraph Filmed live at Wyndham's Theatre, this passionate drama of love, family and endurance comes to cinemas from 27 January 2022. The new ‘masterwork’ (Evening Standard ) opened to overwhelming critical acclaim and sold-out performances in 2020 & 2021 – don't miss on a big screen near you. Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance. ‘Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is magnificent ’ (Independent ) and should not be missed. Filmed by National Theatre Live Presented by Sonia Freidman Productions ★★★★ Tom Stoppard’s new masterwork is an early contender for play for the year. Evening Standard CAST SEBASTIAN ARMESTO – Jacob/Nathan/Ludwig JENNA AUGEN – Rosa CARA BALLINGALL – Jana RHYS BAILEY – Young Nathan FAYE CASTELOW – Gretl JOE COEN – Policeman/Zac FELICITY DAVIDSON – Hilde MARK EDEL-HUNT – Civilian/Fritz CLARA FRANCIS – Wilma ARTY FROUSHAN – Leo ILAN GALKOFF – Pauli CAROLINE GRUBER – Emilia SAM HOARE – Percy NATALIE LAW – Hanna AVYE LEVENTIS – Sally AIDAN MCARDLE – Hermann MACY NYMAN – Hermine NOOF OUSELLAM – Otto DOROTHEA MYER-BENNETT – Eva JAKE NEADS – Mohel/Policeman AARON NEIL – Ernst ALEXANDER NEWLAND – Kurt SADIE SHIMMIN – Poldi GRIFFIN STEVENS – Aaron ELEANOR WYLD – Nellie CREATIVES TOM STOPPARD – Playwright PATRICK MARBER – Director RICHARD HUDSON – Set Designer BRIGITTE REIFFENSTUEL – Costume Designer NEIL AUSTIN – Lighting Designer ADAM CORK – Sound and Original Music EMILY JANE BOYLE – Movement AMY BALL CDG – Casting VERITY NAUGHTON – Children's Casting

Back to News & Press Twelfth Night and Richard III additional casting announced Wednesday, 26 June 2013 Additional casting has been announced for the critically heralded all-male Shakespeare’s Globe repertory productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III on Broadway this fall. The productions, which delighted audiences and broke all box office records in London’s West End earlier this year, will open Sunday, November 10 at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street), with previews beginning October 15. Twelfth Night and Richard III , which are directed by Tim Carroll , designed by Jenny Tiramani and with music by Claire van Kampen , will play a limited engagement for 16 weeks. Tickets are on sale now through www.telecharge.com . For a schedule of performances and more information, please visit www.ShakespeareBroadway.com Two-time Tony Award®-winner Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing ) stars as the suddenly love struck noblewoman Olivia in Twelfth Night and as the ruthless and conniving title monarch in Richard III . Twelfth Night and Richard III offer the first opportunity for Broadway audiences to see Mark Rylance performing Shakespeare, for which he has earned such accolades as “our greatest living actor” (The Independent ) and “the most exciting stage actor of his generation” (The Times ). From his early performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company to his 10 years as the first Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe (1995-2005), UK critics and audiences have celebrated Rylance for his fresh, hilarious and inventive performances in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Two Gentlemen of Verona and As You Like It , among others. Much loved playwright, screenwriter, actor, writer, poet, journalist, comedian, television personality and national treasure Stephen Fry makes his Broadway acting debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night . Tony Award®-nominee and Drama Desk Award-winner Samuel Barnett (The History Boys ) appears as Viola in Twelfth Night and Queen Elizabeth in Richard III . Joining Rylance, Fry and Barnett will be many members of the acclaimed Shakespeare’s Globe and West End casts, including Liam Brennan (Orsino in Twelfth Night and Clarence and Lord Mayor in Richard III ), Paul Chahidi (a 2013 Olivier Award nominee for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Maria in Twelfth Night and Hastings and Tyrell in Richard III), John Paul Connolly (Antonio in Twelfth Night and 1st Murderer, Cardinal, Ratcliff and Halberdier in Richard III ), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Feste in Twelfth Night and Brakenbury and Catesby in Richard III ), Colin Hurley (Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and King Edward IV and Stanley in Richard III ) and Jethro Skinner (Fabian in Twelfth Night and 2nd Murderer, Messenger and Halberdier in Richard III ). Angus Wright joins the Broadway company, returning to the role of Sir Andrew Aguecheek which he played in Shakespeare’s Globe’s earlier staging of Twelfth Night and as Duke of Buckingham in Richard III. Terry McGinty , another veteran of Shakespeare’s Globe’s earlier staging of Twelfth Night , also joins the Broadway company as the Sea Captain and Priest in Twelfth Night and Scrivener, Rivers and Blunt in Richard III . Additional casting will be announced soon. The producers are pleased to announce that at every performance, 250 seats will be set aside to be sold for $25. These seats will include the balcony, as well as selected seats in the orchestra, mezzanine, boxes and Globe-style on-stage seating, bookable in advance. Over 20,000 $25 tickets will be made available throughout the run. Twelfth Night and Richard III are both presented with an extraordinary all-male company playing both male and female roles, as the plays were originally staged in Shakespeare’s day. The productions are filled with music, played live by seven musicians on traditional Elizabethan instruments in a gallery above the stage, and are lit almost exclusively by the glow of 100 on-stage candles, adding to the intimate and authentic atmosphere. Entering the theatre, audiences will also witness the pre-show ritual of actors dressing and preparing their make-up on stage, adding to the unique and immersive theatrical experience. “These productions show how laugh-out-loud funny, thrillingly theatrical and immediate Shakespeare plays can be,” the producers commented. “To see Mark Rylance, who is one of the world’s greatest, most accomplished and acclaimed stage actors, and the remarkable Shakespeare’s Globe company in these two uniquely staged extraordinary productions is an unforgettable experience. It is important to us that the opportunity is accessible to all audiences, across the house, so we are thrilled to be able to offer 250 seats at $25 for every performance, bookable in advance, throughout the engagement.” The plays, which will mark the Broadway debut for London’s world-famous Shakespeare’s Globe, will be staged in repertory, with six performances of Twelfth Night and two performances of Richard III a week (post opening), with the opportunity to see the two productions in one day on Wednesdays and Saturdays. TWELFTH NIGHT Outrageous high comedy ensues as the pangs of unrequited love affect the unforgettable characters of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night . While the lovelorn Duke Orsino plots to win the heart of the mourning Olivia (Mark Rylance ), an alliance of servants and hangers-on scheme against the high handedness of Olivia’s steward, the pompous Malvolio (Stephen Fry ). When Orsino engages the cross-dressed Viola (Samuel Barnett ), who has disguised herself as a young man under the name Cesario, to plead with Olivia on his behalf, a bittersweet and hilarious chain of events follows. RICHARD III Richard Duke of Gloucester (Mark Rylance ) is determined that he should wear the crown of England. He has already dispatched one king and that king’s son; now all that stands in his way are two credulous brothers and two helpless nephews – the Princes in the Tower. And woe betide those – the women he wrongs, the henchmen he betrays – who dare to raise a voice against him. Monstrous, but theatrically electric, Richard is Shakespeare’s most charismatic, self-delighting villain, reveling at every moment in his homicidal, hypocritical journey to absolute power. SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE Founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare’s Globe is a vibrant organization and reconstructed open-air theatre on the banks of the River Thames dedicated to the exploration of Shakespearean, Elizabethan, Jacobean, and contemporary theatre. Through an ambitious and lively theatre season, a dynamic and varied education program and a rich and interesting exhibition, the Globe has become a significant part of the national and international theatre landscape. Under the Globe’s first artistic director, Mark Rylance, and now its second, Dominic Dromgoole, the theatre has worked its way through Shakespeare’s canon, providing a huge wealth of insight into each play when it is produced afresh within the architecture for which Shakespeare originally wrote. The Globe has always been an international story, having been built by an American; welcoming international audiences into its oak embrace throughout its life and taking its work back out into the world including many theatre tours and workshops in the US. In January 2014, Shakespeare’s Globe will present the first season of plays in its newly constructed Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – a Jacobean archetype of an early indoor theatre, completely unique amongst London venues and enabling Shakespeare’s Globe to present theatre productions all year round. Up Up

Back to Productions FAIR PLAY This production opened on 3rd December 2021 and closed on 22nd January 2022. ★★★★ A brave, sinewy tale of gender equality in sport The Telegraph The clocks are set. The line is drawn. They’ve got a chance to be champions. But at what cost? When Ann joins Sophie’s running club she’s thrown into a world of regimented training and pure focus. The two girls couldn’t be more different, but soon their shared passion makes them inseparable – dreaming in lanes and lap times, waking up picturing Olympic medals, each day stronger and faster… But set head to head in the run-up to the World Championships, they find themselves and their friendship put to the ultimate test. As their relationships, their bodies, and their very identities are pulled into public scrutiny, does being exceptional come at too high a price? ★★★★ A meaty drama about athletics... Stunningly well-executed The Times A gripping exploration of the underside of women’s athletics, Fair Play is the new work from Ella Road (The Phlebotomist) – 'the most promising young playwright in Britain' (The Telegraph ). This is a Bush Theatre production in association with Sonia Friedman Productions . ★★★★★ An exhilarating piece set in the fiercely competitive world of athletics WhatsOnStage CAST NICK KING CHARLOTTE BEAUMONT CREATIVES ELLA ROAD – Writer MONIQUE TOUKO – Director NAOMI DAWSON – Designer JOSEPH TOONGA – Movement Director MATT HASKINS – Lighting Designer GILES THOMAS – Composer and Sound Designer HEATHER BASTEN CDG – Casting

Back to News & Press Jeff Goldblum to star in The Prisoner Of Second Avenue Wednesday, 19 May 2010 Jeff Goldblum appeared at The Old Vic in the Spring of 2008 in Matthew Warchus’ critically acclaimed production of David Mamet’s Speed the Plow, co-starring Old Vic Artistic Director, Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey commented: “This is such an exciting development for The Old Vic and brings so many strong relationships together. First, to stage a production in the West End, taking our work to a new space and connecting with a wider audience. Second, I have long wanted to present a Neil Simon play in London. I adore his writing and we’ve had a great relationship over the years. Third, I will be delighted to welcome Jeff Goldblum back to London. We had such a great experience together in Speed the Plow and I couldn’t be happier that he’s going to appear in this remarkable play. We’re looking forward to collaborating with Sonia Friedman again after our great success together with the Norman Conquests in New York. With Sam Mendes’ Bridge Project back at The Old Vic from June theatregoers are in for a great summer of Old Vic shows.” Jeff Goldblum said "I'm so grateful and thrilled about being back in London on the stage. My recent experience at The Old Vic was the best time I've ever had. To work with Kevin Spacey, my friend and a true genius, will be delicious. I’m also excited to be back with the entire group at The Old Vic -- a sterling, nourishing and gorgeous family. And how delightful to be working with Terry Johnson. I've been in love with Neil Simon's work my whole life. He's not only a comic genius, as everyone knows, but sage in matters of the soul as well.” Set in the 1970's, The Prisoner of Second Avenue is a black comedy depicting a New York couple, Mel (Jeff Goldblum) and Edna Edison, enduring the trials and tribulations of city life. Mel is made redundant and the stress of an economic crisis and urban life pushes him into having a nervous breakdown. The family gathers to offer support, with Edna stoically bearing the burden of his disintegration and self-pity. The Prisoner of Second Avenue originally premiered on Broadway in 1971, starring Peter Falk and Lee Grant, where it ran for two years and received a Tony Award nomination. It was subsequently made into a film in 1975, starring Jack Lemmon and Anne Bankcroft. Neil Simon is the winner of three Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Mark Twain Award for American Humor and was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor in 1995. His plays include Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys, California Suite, Chapter Two, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Dinner Party and books for the musicals for Little Me, Sweet Charity (currently playing in the West End), Promises Promises (currently on Broadway), They're Playing Our Song and The Goodbye Girl. Jeff Goldblum plays Mel. Recent theatre includes Speed the Plow at The Old Vic, The Pillowman on Broadway (Outer Critics’ Circle Award, Drama Critics’ Award, nominations for Drama Desk and Drama League Awards). Films include Fay Grim, The Life Aquatic, Igby Goes Down, California Split, Nashville, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Prince of Egypt, Powder, Mr Frost, Annie Hall, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The Big Chill, Silverado, The Fly, Deep Cover, The Right Stuff, Between The Lines, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Into the Night, Next Stop - Greenwich Village, The Tall Guy, and Adam Resurrected. Jeff was nominated for an Academy Award for directing the live-action short film Little Surprises, was nominated for an Emmy Award for his television appearance on Will and Grace, and served on the jury of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Terry Johnson is a multi-award winning playwright and director and is also Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre. He has been honoured with ten major British Theatre awards, including two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Terry’s production of La Cage aux Folles on Broadway has been nominated for 11 Tony Awards including Best Direction of a Musical and Best Revival of a Musical and he has just won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical. Terry’s recent West End productions include: La Cage aux Folles, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, End of the Rainbow, Rain Man, Whipping It Up, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Graduate, Dead Funny, Hysteria, Elton John's Glasses and The Memory of Water. He has worked with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, directing John Malkovich in The Libertine (nominated for five Jeff Awards, including Best Production) and Lost Land, both plays by Stephen Jeffries. He has written and directed for international television, most recently The Man Who Lost His Head for ITV and Not Only But Always for Channel Four, which won five International Award nominations, Best Film at Banff and a BAFTA for Rhys Ifans. The Prisioner of Second Avenue is produced in the West End by The Old Vic Theatre Company/Old Vic Productions plc and Sonia Friedman Productions. Up Up

Back to Productions SHIFTERS This production began on 12 August and closed on 12 October 2024. ★★★★ 'The perfect bittersweet rom-com' Evening Standard Dre and Des. Young. Gifted. Black. He stayed. She left. Years later, Des and Dre come crashing back into each other’s lives, carrying new secrets and old scars. With the clock counting down until Des has to leave again, memories of their teen years collide with their present and they’re forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason. ★★★★ 'Smouldering and soulful' Time Out Eleanor Lloyd Productions , Chuchu Nwagu Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions are delighted to offer you the opportunity to invest in the West End premiere of Benedict Lombe ’s play Shifters , directed by Lynette Linton in a transfer from the Bush Theatre. Do you believe in destiny? Shifters , “the perfect bittersweet rom-com” (Evening Standard) is transferring to the West End, following a critically-acclaimed incredible, sold-out run at the Bush Theatre. This fierce new romance is “smouldering and soulful” (Time Out) and a must-see for anyone longing for a different kind of love story. Written by Benedict Lombe (Lava , winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwriting), directed by Evening Standard Theatre Award winner Lynette Linton (Blues for an Alabama Sky , August in England ) and starring the “tremendous” (The Observer) Tosin Cole (BBC’s Doctor Who, Netflix’s Supacell) and the “irresistible” (London Theatre) Heather Agyepong (School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play , Lyric Hammersmith). Shifters is a beautifully intoxicating and relatable reminder of the enduring power of memory and young love. A universal story, full of heart, it’s “laugh out loud funny and tears-to-the-eyes moving” (The Times). ★★★★ 'Laugh out loud funny and tears to the eyes moving' The Times CAST TOSIN COLE HEATHER AGYEPONG CREATIVES BENEDICT LOMBE – Playwright LYNETTE LINTON – Director ALEX BERRY – Set and Costume Design NEIL AUSTIN – Lighting Design TONY GAYLE – Sound Design XANA – Composition SHELLEY MAXWELL – Movement and Intimacy Direction DEIRDRE O'HALLORAN – Production Dramaturg JOEL TRILL – Voice Coach HEATHER BASTEN CDG – Casting

Back to News & Press Sonia Friedman: ‘Sexist guys? It’s not their time any more’ in Financial Times Thursday, 4 October 2018 An article by Hannah Beckerman .Sonia Friedman rushes past the spot where I’m waiting for her, shakes my hand and apologises for being late. “I’ll be about 10 minutes,” she says, before disappearing through a door disguised as a bookcase, the kind of exit that would not look out of place in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , one of the hit plays for which Friedman is responsible. Meanwhile, I’m ushered into the boardroom of her Covent Garden offices — a narrow room dominated by a long, thin black table. Apparently, Friedman likes conducting interviews here because you get a feel for the company. You certainly get a feel for its success. One wall displays a gallery of framed Olivier Awards: I don’t count them but Friedman has 48 in total. On another wall are photographs from a selection of productions: it’s not every single one of the more than 160 shows Friedman has produced since 1990 — from David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow to The Book of Mormon — but it’s enough to remind you why she is regarded as the world’s most successful theatre producer, and why this year she featured on Time magazine’s 100 list of the most influential people in the world. When Friedman, 53, enters the boardroom she sits down opposite me, a bottle of water in one hand, a bottle of juice in the other. It’s lunchtime but I get the impression that she probably doesn’t take many breaks in the middle of the day. I tell her that I recently saw The Jungle , her critically acclaimed play about life in the Calais refugee camp, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin and starring a number of refugee actors. “The Jungle is a defining moment in my career,” she says, “because I don’t think I could produce it in the West End now if I hadn’t had the 20 years of experience behind me. I’ve got to the place professionally where I can say, ‘Let’s do this’: convince the theatre owner, convince investors, convince artists to do it in that space. It’s a defining moment for me because if I can’t do that type of work alongside all the rest of it, I don’t want to do my job. I have to be able to tell those stories too.” Friedman is right that it’s hard to imagine many producers who could bring a play like The Jungle — a vibrant but politically and emotionally challenging piece of immersive theatre — to the West End. And yet it’s been playing to healthy audiences throughout its run. Is she only able to produce such projects — which carry more commercial risk — because she has numerous profitable shows already under way? “Absolutely not. I can’t think of my work in terms of commercial versus non-commercial. Everything I do has to start from a passion to tell that story with that group of actors and creatives. Somewhere in the process I’ll have to look at the recoupment sheet and budgets and go, ‘Is this going to make any financial sense or not? Is this a going concern?’ But it’s not my starting point. [That] has to be how I respond to an idea. Having said that, it would be disingenuous for me to say that having something like Harry Potter and The Book of Mormon in my life doesn’t enable me to make things like The Jungle possible. But they’re all completely different financial models. So it’s not that Harry Potter pays for The Jungle . I have different investors [for each]. But my own money — my own income — can support these ventures if I feel that they’re going to need a bit more help.” Friedman pauses and when she begins to speak again her voice is impassioned. “Nothing I do sets out to be commercial. I’ve had an allergy towards that word since I worked in the subsidised sector. I hated commercial theatre. I think it’s anti-art, anti-theatre, anti-creativity, anti-audience, and so I like to think of myself as an independent producer as opposed to a commercial producer.” Those who have worked with Friedman support this view: far from the conventional image of the bean-counting producer, she has a reputation for being on the side of writers, actors and directors. Actor Mark Rylance has said that what sets her apart is that she shares more traits with an artistic director than a traditional producer. Jez Butterworth , creator of Jerusalem and The Ferryman , has spoken of how she makes him feel special and looked after, while Tom Stoppard has called her the go-to theatre producer of her generation. At one point during our interview, Friedman pulls out her phone and shows me a text message she received from Stoppard earlier. “He’s writing me a play at the moment and just before I came in here he wrote me a text saying he’s on page 35.” I ask what the play is about. “I don’t even know what he’s writing,” she says. “But to know that Tom Stoppard is somewhere locked away in a room right now writing a play for me to produce maybe — if I’m lucky enough — is just extraordinary.” Friedman’s range has always been eclectic. Having started her career as a stage manager at the National Theatre, she moved into producing in the 1990s, forming the Out of Joint Theatre Company with Max Stafford-Clarke, before establishing her own eponymous production company in 2002. From the outset, Friedman didn’t shy away from controversy, taking on productions such as Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F**king (1996), and has always been a champion of new writers: Lee Hall, Sebastian Barry and Patrick Marber all had early work produced by Friedman. Her Midas touch has been well documented: The Book of Mormon has smashed box office records at the Prince of Wales Theatre since Friedman brought it to the UK in 2013. Nine Olivier awards later, it is still a sell-out despite being, according to a ticket survey last year in the theatre newspaper The Stage, the most expensive West End musical, with tickets costing up to £202. Friedman acknowledges there have been productions that didn’t work out as she’d hoped but, diplomatically, declines to name them. If she is impossible to pigeonhole as a producer, I ask whether there is a shared DNA among her projects, and what it is that piques her interest at the outset. She thinks for a moment, begins a sentence, stops herself and thinks some more. “I’ve got lots of answers to this. The only reason I’m hesitating is because I don’t know which one to start with. What piques my interest is where I am in my life at that particular moment. What’s preoccupying my mind, not just politically but also my own personal interests, my own personal problems, griefs, issues. Is it in any way helping me understand what’s going on? But, most importantly, it has to surprise me. If I turn a page and I don’t know what’s going to happen next but I’m engaged, I’ll keep going. Or it can be a director. I have long-standing relationships with several directors and so a lot of projects emerge through discussion, debate, reading with a particular director who I want to keep working with. And then, of course, there’s writers and actors.” From Harold Pinter, Trevor Nunn and Rupert Goold to Keira Knightley, Elisabeth Moss and Carey Mulligan, the cast of those Friedman has worked with reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary dramatic talent. It is perhaps not surprising that Friedman has such a natural affinity with creatives. Her father — who left home before she was born — was the renowned violinist Leonard Friedman. Her mother, Clair Sims, was a concert pianist who relinquished her career in order to raise her four children, becoming a London tour guide and piano teacher to pay the bills. Her siblings include the actress Maria Friedman and the violinist Richard Friedman. They are a remarkably successful group despite the instability of their childhood. I ask Friedman whether she sees a link between the estrangement from her father and her own drive to succeed. A notoriously hard grafter, she rarely gets home before 11 o’clock at night and never takes holidays. “Of course. I was looking for approval from both my mum and my dad but particularly from my absent dad, who was very much out there and active but didn’t know who I was. In fact, the only time he contacted me — and I’m not exaggerating — was when he wanted some money. I don’t think I was aware of it then, that what I was looking for was approval. I don’t think you understand what your motivation is when you’re young, do you?” The estrangement from her father, who died in 1994, has affected her career in unexpected ways. Many producers had tried to persuade the best-selling Harry Potter author JK Rowling to collaborate on a stage version of her stories but it was Friedman’s idea that finally convinced her. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Chil d as it is wouldn’t have happened unless there’d been the father issues. My father had terrible parenting himself: how does that impact on your own children? And if you’re a great man — if you’re a great artist — does that mean that you can’t be a good dad? In terms of that narrative, I have my absent dad to thank for that story because that was the conversation that Jo [Rowling] and I had,” she laughs. Friedman describes how she and her siblings coped with their father’s desertion by putting on plays together when they were home alone. “My very early childhood was wild and boisterous and crazy and bohemian and full of music and creativity and then it stopped. Bang — just stopped when I was eight. They [her siblings] all left home in the space of a year and it was a very difficult time. Very, very difficult. And that was the time when the only survival was to escape through my dolls’ house, and by plugging into the thing that my brother and my sisters had given me which was storytelling. So I created stories on my own for about three or four years. And then I left home when I was very young — when I was about 13. I left home to go to a boarding school and then I never really went back.” Having spoken in a thoughtful, considered way thus far, Friedman suddenly becomes visibly distressed. She tells me that her mother, to whom she was incredibly close, died recently and that this is the first interview she has given since. Her mother’s death has, she says, reshaped the way she views her own motivations. “Losing my mum has crystallised for me everything to do with the absent father and actually who I was really doing it for. I was actually really doing it for my mum. Because my mum had such a difficult time: four children under 10, on her own, no money, rejection from my father’s side completely. He had multiple affairs and he didn’t ever give her a penny. And she put her whole career on hold, her life on hold. I thought I was doing it for my dad. I wasn’t. I was doing it to prove to mum that it was worth it.” Does she think this will influence the kind of plays she produces in future? “When I saw Harry Potter just after my mum died, up until that point, the play had been about one thing for me. And then I saw it again and it became a completely different play to me. Before, it was a play about father-son issues, parent-children issues, how you communicate. And then after, it was a play about grief and loss, and that’s what it is to me now. Because I am a girl who is grieving and has lost. So that will no doubt inform how I move forward creatively… Yes, I lost my dad, but I didn’t grieve. That was anger. So we’ll see how it affects the next period of my working life.” Throughout, Friedman is candid — at one point, she jokingly comments that the interview feels like a therapy session. I wonder if she has a theory as to why, in 2018, a successful female theatre producer is still a rarity. Is theatreland still a sexist place to operate? “I think if it’s sexist, those guys have to keep their mouths shut, don’t they? It’s not their time any more. And my God, doesn’t it feel good? “But there are still some very real issues and challenges women have to face: having a child, bringing up a family. I, for various reasons, have never had that choice put in front of me, so I haven’t had to make that choice. I think it would be very hard for women to have the sort of career I’ve had and bring up a family because of the hours and time it takes to do it. So I don’t think that’s sexist, but I think it’s still very real.” But is she optimistic that, a year after the #MeToo movement went viral, there is a brighter future ahead for women in the theatre industry? “In terms of female directors, female-led plays, female writers — this is the shift. It’s certainly, in our lifetime, the biggest shift and the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen, happening right now. I think we are now seizing the moment and I can’t see it going backwards.” Meanwhile, Friedman has another packed season ahead. In addition to the current slate of shows on both sides of the Atlantic, she has two new plays in London — The Inheritance, a two-part Matthew Lopez play inspired by EM Forster’s Howards End, and Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke — as well as Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman on Broadway. I ask her if it’s true that it’s a much tougher nut to crack than the West End. “Broadway is primarily about the one review — The New York Times. For plays, if you don’t get a good New York Times review and you don’t have a massive, massive star in it, you’re dead. You’re dead within days.” Does she manage to sleep much before Broadway openings? Friedman laughs. “No. Literally every time I open a show on Broadway I go, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself. What am I doing?’ But Broadway is the best place to produce in the world because of the high-wire act. It’s intoxicating. It’s devastating when it doesn’t work but, my God, when it does it just feels like you’ve conquered the world.” Given how often Friedman has conquered the theatrical world — a notoriously crowded and capricious space — what’s the secret to her consistently good audiences? “It’s not difficult, if it’s good,” she whispers, and smiles. “I don’t have a worry about the economy of our theatre. Great work, great stories will always have an audience. It’s not about taking an advert in three newspapers and making sure that your digital campaign works and you’ve got enough escalator panels up — it’s not about that. Of course that’s part of it. But it’s about word-of-mouth, word-of-mouth, word-of-mouth.” Since Friedman started producing 25 years ago, the meaning of word-of-mouth has expanded dramatically. In the age of social media, a creative team can get real-time audience feedback during the first preview of a new production. So does social media reduce the importance of critics? “No. The critics are very, very important but the critics can’t make it a hit if the people don’t want to go. You can’t have a hit if the audience and the word-of-mouth is not strong. But if they happen together you’re off and running.” One of the contentious issues in the theatrical world in recent years has been the casting of celebrities — particularly in musical theatre — as a means of attracting audiences. Friedman’s shows over the years include productions with unknowns — such as The Jungle — and those featuring household names such as Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch in 2015, for which all 100,000 tickets sold out in hours. Is it ever a difficult decision to cast a famous actor? “It’s simply about whether I think they can do the job and whether they’d be right for that role. There’s no question that audiences love star performances. It’s what the theatre’s always been about. I think some producers are sometimes criticised for casting stars when actually they’re terrific theatre actors who happen to be famous for doing Sherlock,” she laughs, referring to one of Cumberbatch’s TV roles. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that if a star is in a play, that is going to make my life easier. But I just want to be clear that we understand what the word star means. A star is a great actor that audiences may have heard of.” Friedman and I have talked a lot about her professional motivations: her absent father, self-sacrificing mother, a childhood steeped in storytelling. Before we end, I ask her whether there might be something else, some other driving force behind her success. She thinks for a few seconds before replying. “I think it’s about proving it to myself — proving that I can do it. The world I’ve chosen to work in, nobody really knows the answer as to why something does or doesn’t work. So I think what keeps me going is the fact that I don’t know what the result is going to be, and I need to go through it in order to find out. I’m not a coward, you see. I’m really, really excited by the unknown.” Up Up

Back to News & Press Further Dreamgirls casting announced Thursday, 12 May 2016 Amber Riley will star in the role of ‘Effie White’ for 7 performances per week. Ruth Brown and Karen Mav will rotate performances on Wednesday evenings. Further casting for the production is still to be announced. Sonia Friedman Productions announce today that Ruth Brown and Karen Mav will support Amber Riley in the role of soulful singer ‘Effie White’ in Dreamgirls when the previously confirmed Ms Riley is not scheduled to perform (Wednesday evenings). Amber will star in the role for seven performances per week when the Tony Award-winning musical has its UK premiere at the Savoy Theatre with preview performances from 19 November and Opening Night on Wednesday 14 December 2016. American actress and singer Amber Riley is best known for her role as ‘Mercedes Jones’ in the Golden Globe Award-winning musical comedy, Glee. Additional television appearances include playing ‘Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North’ in the NBC live performance of the musical, The Wiz and competing in Dancing with the Stars, which she won in 2013. Riley’s numerous theatre credits include Alice in Wonderland, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Into the Woods and Mystery on the Docks with the Los Angeles Opera. In November 2012, she made her New York stage debut to rave reviews in New York City Center’s Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Parade. Ruth Brown found fame in the first series of BBC’s The Voice, reaching the semi-finals under the mentorship of Sir Tom Jones. She has since gone on to release her first UK single ‘P.O.P.’ and is soon to debut her new album, Letters of Truth. Karen Mav was recently a contestant on the 2015 series of ITV’s The X Factor where she wowed TV audiences and judges with her take on Etta James’s ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ and the Whitney Houston version of the classic ‘I Will Always Love You’. Sonia Friedman , Producer “This is fantastic news for the production. Casting Amber Riley is of course thrilling as she is the most extraordinary talent to star in our show, but now to be able to announce that Ruth Brown and Karen Mav will be joining the show, to cover Amber and share performances on the night that Amber will not be on is just fantastic.” As previously announced, Dreamgirls will be Directed and Choreographed by Olivier and Tony Award®-winning Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Disney’s Aladdin and Something Rotten!), with Set Design by Tim Hatley, Costume Design by Gregg Barnes, Lighting Design by Hugh Vanstone, Sound Design by Richard Brooker and Hair Design by Josh Marquette. The Musical Supervisor will be Nick Finlow, the Orchestrator will be Harold Wheeler, with Additional Material by Willie Reale. Dreamgirls transports you to a revolutionary time in American music history. Dreamgirls charts the tumultuous journey of a young female singing trio from Chicago, Illinois called ‘The Dreams’, as they learn the hard lesson that show business is as tough as it is fabulous, and features the classic songs ‘And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going’, ‘I Am Changing’, ‘Listen’ and ‘One Night Only’. With Book and Lyrics by Tom Eyen and Music by Henry Krieger, the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls, Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett opened in 1981 and subsequently won six Tony Awards®. The original cast recording won two Grammy awards for Best Musical Album and Best Vocal Performance for Jennifer Holliday’s ‘And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going.’ In 2006 it was adapted into an Oscar winning motion picture starring Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx. Up Up

Back to News & Press Harry Potter and the Cursed Child receives 3 Critics' Circle Awards Tuesday, 31 January 2017 We are thrilled to announce that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been awarded 3 Critics' Circle Awards: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, Best Director, John Tiffany, 2017 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, Best Designer, Christine Jones, 2017 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, Most Promising Newcomer, Anthony Boyle, 2017 Up Up

Back to News & Press Front Row: Theatre one year on - what now? Wednesday, 17 March 2021 On the day a year ago that theatres went dark, Front Row explores what impact that has had on the industry with guests including Sonia Friedman, Emma Rice, Michael Balogun, Julian Bird and Amy Ng. Listen here . Up Up