Back to News & Press Sunny Afternoon to embark on first UK Tour in 2016 Friday, 11 December 2015 Featuring some of The Kinks’ best-loved songs, including You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset and Lola, SUNNY AFTERNOON tells the story of the early life of Ray Davies and the rise to stardom of The Kinks. The Kinks exploded onto the 60s music scene with a raw energetic new sound that rocked a nation. But how did that happen, where exactly did they come from and what happened next? Set against the back-drop of a Britain caught mid-swing between the conservative 50s and riotous 60s, this production explores the euphoric highs and agonising lows of one of Britain’s most iconic bands and the irresistible music that influenced generations. Following a sell-out run at Hampstead Theatre, SUNNY AFTERNOON opened to critical acclaim at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End in October 2014 and is currently booking into a second triumphant year. SUNNY AFTERNOON has music and lyrics by Ray Davies with a book by Joe Penhall and original story by Ray Davies. It is directed by Edward Hall, designed by Miriam Buether with choreography by Adam Cooper. Lighting design is by Rick Fisher with sound design by Matt McKenzie for Autograph. The Musical Supervisor is Elliott Ware. The original West End Production of SUNNY AFTERNOON is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions with Tulchin Bartner Productions, Greg Ripley-Duggan for Hampstead Theatre Productions, Tanya Link Productions, Just for Laughs Theatricals/Glass Half Full Productions, Rupert Gavin, in association with Hampstead Theatre and Arlon Productions. Up Up

Back to News & Press Tickets now on sale for The Ferryman at Broadway's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Monday, 5 March 2018 Producers Sonia Friedman Productions and Neal Street Productions are pleased to confirm that tickets for the Broadway engagement of Jez Butterworth ’s acclaimed new play The Ferryman go on sale today (March 5th) at 10AM through www.telecharge.com . Directed by Sam Mendes , The Ferryman will begin previews Tuesday, October 2nd at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 W. 45th Street, New York) ahead of the opening night on Sunday, October 21st. Developed by Sonia Friedman Productions and produced with Neal Street Productions and The Royal Court Theatre , The Ferryman opened at The Royal Court in May 2017 to huge critical acclaim and was the fastest-selling play in the theater’s history. The sold-out show transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End, and will end its thrice-extended, year-long run on May 19, 2018. In London, The Ferryman received an extraordinary 24 five-star reviews. The production has won three 2017 Evening Standard Awards, including Best Play and Best Director; three 2018 Whatsonstage Awards, including Best New Play and Best Director; and was named the Best New Play at the 2018 Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards. The Ferryman marks the first time Jez Butterworth and Sam Mendes have worked together on stage. They previously collaborated on Spectre and Skyfall from the James Bond franchise. Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed Broadway debut, Jerusalem received a Tony Award Nomination for Best Play. His other plays seen in New York include Mojo and The River . Butterworth has been called “arguably Britain’s most successful living playwright” (Time Out London ) and “a visionary fast becoming a theatrical great” (The Guardian ). Sam Mendes received the Academy Award for his direction of American Beauty . Mendes’ New York stage productions include Cabaret and The Blue Room on Broadway, and Richard III, As You Like It , The Tempest , The Cherry Orchard and The Winter’s Tale as part of the Bridge Project at BAM. The Ferryman ’s 30-plus member Broadway cast will be announced at a later date. The Ferryman is set in rural Northern Ireland in 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor. The Ferryman is designed by Rob Howell , with lighting by Peter Mumford , and sound and original music by Nick Powell . Other members of the Broadway creative team will be announced at a later date. The Ferryman is produced on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions & Neal Street Productions with Scott M. Delman, Ronald Frankel, Roy Furman, Rupert Gavin, Gavin Kalin Productions, Kallish Weinstein Creative, Ron Kastner, Scott Landis, Stephanie P. McClelland, Starry Night Entertainment, Tulchin Bartner Productions and 1001 Nights. TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets are now available at www.telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200 or 800-447-7400. Up Up

Back to Productions MARC SALEM MIND GAMES This production began performances on 30th April and closed on 23rd June 2002. Sonia Friedman Productions , Waxman Williams and Georganne Heller present Mark Salem ’s “MIND GAMES ”. CAST MARC SALEM CREATIVES MARC SALEM

Back to News & Press King Charles III nominated for five Tony Awards Monday, 2 May 2016 The show received the following nominations: Best Play – King Charles III by Mike Bartlett Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play– Tim Pigott-Smith Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play - Richard Goulding Best Direction of a Play – Rupert Goold Best Costume Design of a Play – Tom Scutt The 70th Annual Tony Awards® will be broadcast live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City, Sunday, June 12 on the CBS Television Network. For a full list of nominees, visit www.tonyawards.com Up Up

Back to News & Press Meet Sonia Friedman: British Theatre’s most important LGBTQ advocate Friday, 21 December 2018 In April 2018, during an exchange backstage at the Olivier Awards, leading arts producer Sonia Friedman promised to represent the queer community in London’s West End within 12 months. “I’m of a particular age now and know that if I’m going to continue to do theatre that represents now, I’m going to have to work with younger generations to keep me stimulated and keep me fired up to tell those stories,” she acknowledged with great honesty – something perhaps unexpected for a leader of her field. “See me next year and if I haven’t done anything then wrap me over the knuckles. Seriously!” Well, it didn’t happen in 12 months but in fact six, as Sonia Friedman Productions (Sonia’s producing company, clue is in the name sweetie) opened The Inheritance , a new play by writer Matthew Lopez . A piece of art we understatedly described during its initial opening at the Young Vic Theatre as “a remarkably consistent work on gay themes that leaves you stirred, shaken and deeply moved” – and that’s putting it lightly. Anybody that’s been lucky enough to spend a day at the Noël Coward Theatre knows it’s a modern masterpiece at that, and has been unsurprisingly showered with critical acclaim even from the hardest of top line tabloids. But why was the story of the AIDS crisis and a group of gay men in New York right for 2018? In an exclusive interview, Sonia Friedman speaks about why diverse and minority casting is to always be embraced, how staging The Inheritance holds a personal connection to her and the friends lost in the 80s AIDS crisis, and how she will always be there for the queer community to ensure our voices and stories don’t ever become invisible. Sonia Friedman is a true ally – fact. How would you describe who Sonia Friedman is? I’m a theatre producer who unusually, for my profession, loves all genres of work; musical, play, modern classic, revival, Shakespeare, cabaret and modern music. Because I’m obsessed with new work and new writing, and because I like to think of myself as quite musical and also politicised and plugged in. I’m at my best and happiest creating and developing and finding new stories to be told. Is it a requirement that your work must always have a second meaning then? It’s giving audiences work they don’t know they want to see. It means I’m always trying to plug myself into what people are perhaps talking about but thinking about, but that’s not necessarily in our zeitgeist or on our stages. As I get older, I’ve got history to fall back on and my emotional range is wider and my life experience is wider so the stories I’m interested in are growing. As a producer, I’m just so curious. I never stop wondering what on Earth is going on with our world. As we talk right now, I can’t imagine a more confused or difficult or challenging but also positive place that we’re living in – think I might have said that ten years ago. Is it getting worse or getting better? I don’t know. Have you been tempted recently to present work that discusses the current political dramas internationally? Trump, for example. I don’t know that audiences here and now want to sit in the theatre and see something about Trump because we’re reading it everyday. We need our writers and our artists to take us on a different journey and make us think about Trump perhaps in a different way, but through the lens of something else. It’s much more satisfying for me, and if you were a writer pitching a play about him, I would argue that play would be out of date next month. Somebody will do that play, but it’s interesting it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know how we respond to what’s happening now, other than looking backwards. Do you look and listen to the minority voices around you regularly? Oh gosh, yes. It’s very interesting, as when preparing for this conversation, I was looking back over my work of the last few years and how I’ve changed. There’s no question that, in my mind for inclusion and diversity, it’s been a massive shift. Not just with me but the industry. Even four or five years ago, it wouldn’t have been a conscious decision of mine with a director to say that ‘diversity is just a given’. Then it would have been unusual. If you go back even further, eight or nine years ago, the diversity that happened within my company – people were cast because of their colour, not regardless. I look at now and it’s so changed and I think as an industry, as opposed to being ashamed or berating ourselves, we should celebrating how we are moving forward and checking each other and ensuring we’re better at that and calling each other out when we’re not. If we go on outdated stereotypes, LGBTQ focused pieces shouldn’t work commercially for the West End, but they do. Angels in America at the NT last year, for example, was a huge success. Angels is quite rightly a modern classic and it changed my life – and I’m not gay. It changed my life as to what is possible in theatre. It took me to places I didn’t know existed. Angels is one of the great plays ever written. It’s a big ol’ piece. It will, I hope for many decades, be part of the canon. I didn’t produce it. Do you wish you did? Erm… do you know what, I don’t wish I produced it because it meant I wouldn’t have seen it. I feel like I’m doing my Angels now with The Inheritance . We’re giving our answer to Angels now. Have you noticed attitudes have changed since you began producing a play and subject matter like The Inheritance? I have a very personal relationship to the play and subject matter. I was very involved in the AIDS crisis in the 80s. When I was a young stage manager at the National Theatre, I volunteered with the Terrence Higgins Trust and spent a good two years in 1986/87 through to 1989. I worked pretty much full time and the National Theatre were great and gave me a lot of time off, to do whatever I could do. It ended up being, without question, the most important and informative time of my life. What started it was seeing people in my industry dying. I was frightened of it like many people were, but rather than running away from it, I ran towards it to try and understand and help because there was something within me that needed to reach out. I created an enormous amount of events and benefits. I didn’t even know I was producing. We went for it and so doing that changed my life. I’ll never, ever think of the world in the same way as when I was young. I still am haunted by the memory of how many young men I would see either in hospital beds or on their own with one bar of heating and they couldn’t afford anything more. The best I could do was write them a cheque from the money we’d raised to pay for the electricity bill for another month. To know that I did the tiniest, just the tiniest bit to help, I will always be very thankful I was there at that time. Without exaggeration, I was going to a funeral a week. I then went back to work. Well, the truth is I had a meltdown. I think you can only face so much devastation for so long. I then went back to my day job and, for a lot of people who were around and particularly the men who’s lovers died, God knows how they were dealing with it. I was able to walk away in one sense but it’s unfinished business in my head, and The Inheritance is by no means the close of a chapter but is responding to that. I’ve been looking for this story because there are many, many wonderful plays about that time, but what is the play that is about now, about then? This is it. Just talking about it now, I can’t stop thinking about the 80s and what the gay community went through, and how staggering it is that we are where we are now. How good it is now where we are in many ways. So how did you two end up finding each other? The Inheritance sort of just landed on my lap like a gift. A gift from above. I wasn’t meant to be producing it, but it was a series of random circumstances with me doing it because of my relationship with Stephen Daldry (The Inheritance director). Stephen was around at my house and he read my Margaret’s monologue at the end where she’s looking back on the time, like I did, seeing so many young men dying. He read me this monologue and at the end of it, I said to him, ‘I’ll do anything, literally anything, to be involved in this. Please.’ I felt I had to justify my credentials because I’m not a gay man. I literally can’t stop thinking about the 80s at the moment. I lost my mother recently and I’m also thinking about the past a lot as well. It will speak to my generation and people around at the time, but more importantly young gay men. I’ve talked to quite a few gay men in my office and around my life, and what has really surprised me how unaware some of them are about what happened. About what really happened. Being involved in The Inheritance , these same young gay men have said to me, ‘This is the first time they’ve seen a play ever that is speaking to me. It’s talking directly to me’. The fact they say and feel that, I know this play is a play for a generation and I feel it very, very, very deeply. While it’s a challenge at an eight hour piece of theatre, I’m absolutely convinced I’m involved with a piece of history. I think anyone that’s been to see it knows that. Genuinely. I hope so. You’re a strong character. Did you have a time in your career when you felt like giving up? Gosh. I’ve never been asked that question before. As we’re having an honest conversation, quite recently just after my mum died. So, February, March, April? Because my mum was my greatest influence in my life and my inspiration, she was who I sort of did it for really. I worked very, very hard and long hours and would always check in with her. If not by phone, text, letter. She wrote me poems every day. I didn’t realise until she died that she was my anchor and all my work here – the narrative that runs through it is my mum. I remember where she was when she saw every piece and her reaction. That was suddenly out of my life and I didn’t really know. It was grief. That’s an honest answer and I’m not through it yet, but plays like The Jungle and The Inheritance specifically right now in my life… something was in the stars that aligned so that they happened right now because they’ve made me appreciate my life in a way, and working life in a way that’s so essential when I’m going through this crisis. It’s a balancer. Yes, I’ve lost my mum, but look at the story we’re telling in The Inheritance . Get it in order, Friedman. And finally, alongside everything you’ve mentioned above, you’ve also put a musical version of Legally Blonde on stage, brought Dreamgirls to London, and you’re now working on the stage adaptation of Mean Girls. Are you ready to claim your gay icon status?! It would be my greatest honour. It would be. Why is Mean Girls so… Do you want it in London? I mean… if ever you’ve got a hit, there it is. Can you imagine what it must be like for me to work with Tina Fey. I’m in the writing room with Tina Fey and I pinch myself. She also might be a gay icon but she’s my icon, too. She’s everybody’s icon. I was phoned up by the producer of the film and asked if I would come in and join him on Mean Girls . It’s been very exciting and obviously there’s conversations about bringing it here, and Tina Fey has said she’d be very excited to bring it to London, so it’ll happen. Up Up

Back to News & Press King Charles III opens at Broadway's Music Box Theatre to great critical acclaim Monday, 2 November 2015 Variety says “Pigott-Smith is phenomenal...portraying a sense of human goodness and character nobility that can either elevate a monarch or damn him to oblivion. ” Peter Marks at The Washington Post comments that “Bartlett scores one remarkable dramatic coup after another. ” In The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney says, “Bartlett offers a fiendishly clever and yet serious questioning of the role of royalty in the 21st century. ” Mark Kennedy, Associated Press, calls King Charles III “...ingenuous, intelligent and intriguing. Forget the king: Long live the playwright! ” Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, directed by Rupert Goold, enjoyed huge success in London last year with critically acclaimed sell-out runs at the Almeida Theatre and in the West End. It is currently on a UK-wide tour which today announces seven further dates in 2016 before transferring to Sydney. King Charles III was first produced by the Almeida Theatre and subsequently co-produced at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions and Stuart Thompson Productions in association with Lee Dean & Charles Diamond and Tulchin Bartner Productions. Directed by the Almeida Theatre’s artistic director Rupert Goold, King Charles III is designed by Tom Scutt, with music composed by Jocelyn Pook, lighting by Jon Clark and sound by Paul Arditti. Mike Bartlett's play explores the people underneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of our democracy, and the conscience of Britain's most famous family. Tim Pigott-Smith leads the cast on Broadway, reprising his celebrated role as King Charles III, with Anthony Calf as Mr. Stevens, Oliver Chris as William, Richard Goulding as Harry, Nyasha Hatendi as Spencer and other roles, Adam James as Mr. Evans, Margot Leicester as Camilla, Miles Richardson as James Reiss, Tom Robertson as Cootsey and other roles, Sally Scott as Sarah and other roles, Tafline Steen as Jess and Lydia Wilson as Kate. The Broadway production of King Charles III is produced by Stuart Thompson Productions, Sonia Friedman Productions and the Almeida Theatre and will run until 31st January 2016. Up Up

Back to News & Press Joint Statement on the Theatre Industry Sunday, 22 October 2017 Following the reports and allegations of the last two weeks, first in America and, more recently, closer to home, we have come together to make clear that there can be no place for sexual harassment or abuse of power in our industry. We salute the bravery of everyone who calls out this abusive behaviour. We support a theatre culture that empowers people to speak up: a culture where abuse of power is always challenged. We are committed to working together to ensure that theatre is a safe space for all, where everyone is respected and listened to. The Royal Court Theatre’s Day of Action on Saturday 28 October is one important part of this process. Together, we are developing further ways to support people to speak up and to hold others to account. It is the responsibility of the industry to create and nurture a culture where unacceptable behaviour is swiftly challenged and addressed. We want to be absolutely clear and say again: there is no room for sexual harassment or abuse of power in the theatre. Everyone deserves to enjoy a happy, healthy and safe working environment. We will support you to speak out, and we will hear you when you do. Statement from (in alphabetical order) Almeida Theatre - Rupert Goold, Denise Wood Arcola Theatre - Mehmet Ergen, Leyla Nazli, Ben Todd Battersea Arts Centre - David Jubb Bridge Theatre - Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr Bristol Old Vic – Tom Morris, Emma Stenning Bush Theatre - Madani Younis, Jon Gilchrist Donmar Warehouse - Josie Rourke, Kate Pakenham Gate Theatre – Ellen McDougall, Jo Royce Hampstead Theatre - Edward Hall, Greg Ripley-Duggan London Theatre Consortium – Emma Rees Lyric Hammersmith - Sean Holmes, Sian Alexander National Theatre - Rufus Norris, Lisa Burger Old Vic - Matthew Warchus, Kate Varah Orange Tree Theatre – Paul Miller, Sarah Nicholson Royal Court Theatre - Vicky Featherstone, Lucy Davies Royal Shakespeare Company - Gregory Doran, Catherine Mallyon Shakespeare’s Globe – Emma Rice Soho Theatre - Steve Marmion, Mark Godfrey SOLT / UK Theatre – Julian Bird Sonia Friedman Productions – Sonia Friedman Theatr Clwyd – Tamara Harvey, Liam Evans-Ford Theatre Royal Stratford East - Nadia Fall, Deborah Sawyerr Tricycle Theatre - Indhu Rubasingham, Bridget Kalloushi Young Vic - David Lan, Lucy Woollatt West Yorkshire Playhouse - James Brining and Robin Hawkes Up Up

Back to News & Press The Times' interview with Sonia Friedman Sunday, 22 May 2011 With three Tony Awards on the trot, Friedman is the UK’s most dynamic theatre producer. What’s the secret of her success? There is no secret of success: any fool knows that. As the screenwriter, William Goldman, said of Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” Even so, you have to wonder how the producer, Sonia Friedman, manages to be behind quite so many of theatre’s biggest, most interesting hits. This year alone she’s had a West End sellout with The Children’s Hour starring Keira Knightley and with the unstarry Clybourne Park. She’s just been nominated for a Best Play Tony Award in New York for Jez Butterworth’s very English Jerusalem (it has six Tony nominations in total). Soon Samuel L. Jackson will be in the city playing Martin Luther King in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, which Friedman seized after first seeing it at the tiny Theatre 503 in South London. Back in London, she’s got Kristin Scott Thomas in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and David Tennant and Catherine Tate in a Much Ado About Nothing that sold out its four-month run before the first preview. She’s also got the London rights to The Book of Mormon, the wildly successful new Broadway musical from the team behind South Park. I mean, she’s got to know something, hasn’t she? Talking to Friedman, 45, in her office on St Martin’s Lane, Central London, it’s clear that she knows plenty. She’s a fluent talker who both expounds at length yet cuts to the chase. Her mind, she says, is always buzzing. On the walls are big colour prints from the nine years of Sonia Friedman Productions (though she’s been producing plays since she started at the National Theatre in the late 1980s). A Little Night Music, Boeing Boeing, The Norman Conquests, Michael Gambon and Lee Evans in Endgame ... “What I enjoy,” she says, “is doing work that makes you go: ‘That’s really good! And it’s commercial.’ ” You don’t have a career like hers by accident. But a secret? That, she sighs, she does not have. Well, how about things she knows not to do? “The one thing that I would avoid right now,” she says, “is a new play, opening directly commercially, by a new writer with an ensemble cast and no names in that cast. That would be commercial suicide. Because there is nothing to peg it on. That sort of theatre, however good the play is, needs to start in the subsidised sector. Because in the West End you do not have the luxury of being discovered. You can’t be a surprise. The right to fail does not exist.” Friedman does workshops for young theatre producers. The question she always asks them is: Why do you think your idea is better than anybody else’s? “I guess that’s my only law, actually. What is going to make your idea stand out when you’ve got fifty, sixty theatres in London? Why your show?” The Tate-Tennant Much Ado, surely the easiest sell of the year, was brought to Friedman by Tate’s agent. That’s unusual. The only other times she has produced shows at their stars’ request were Clive Owen in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 2001 and Sean Bean in Macbeth in 2002. It’s more usual for her to commission a play, to decide to do it after reading it or to transfer it — as she did with Clybourne Park or Jerusalem. And Jerusalem, she says, is why there are no rules. “Because, on paper, it doesn’t tick any of the right boxes. It’s about a drug-dealing gypsy, it’s long, it’s impossible to explain it in a sentence, its lead actor, Mark Rylance, is not a Hollywood star. There is no reason why that should be a commercial success apart from one thing: it’s extraordinary. But you only knew that once you saw it at the Royal Court. And that is your argument for subsidised theatre, why it has to exist. If Jez Butterworth had sent me that play I think, being very honest, I wouldn’t have known what to do with it.” In fact, even after seeing it she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then, the next day, Tom Stoppard went to see it and texted her saying: “You cannot call yourself a producer if you do not transfer this.” She took the bait and, after doing incredibly well in the West End last year, it is currently the talk of Broadway: “Mark Rylance is astonishing,” declared the all-important New York Times review. It’s due to return to London in the autumn. But it’s hard work, she says, dividing her time between London and New York . They call for different approaches, too. One advert for Jerusalem in The New York Times might cost $200,000. That’s her whole marketing budget for Betrayal. She does not relish the David Frost lifestyle: “Hate the travel. Though thank heavens for the iPad.” She prefers to stay at home, in her converted pub in the East End, often filled to the gills with friends and family. So why leave London? Her eyes widen. “Because it’s amazing to be a producer in New York. I love my work here, but New York is a theatre town in a way that this isn’t. Most producers wait years and years to win a Tony: I’ve done it three years in a row. It’s pretty intoxicating.” What makes a good producer? Good instinct is one thing. Friedman goes for shows that she wants to see herself. She brought back Noises Off in 2001, despite Michael Frayn’s worries that it was too soon to revive it, because she wanted a laugh. And she helped to bring Legally Blonde to London after the children she took with her to see it on Broadway urged her to. She’s not, she insists, someone who thinks she knows better than the directors, actors and designers she hires: “If I have to interfere in the creative process then I have failed.” According to Ian Rickson, the director of Jerusalem, The Children’s Hour and Betrayal, Friedman still has the values that she learnt in the subsidised sector. “What you want to feel as a director,” he says, “is that someone is behind you who has the play’s best interests at heart. It’s not about ego or money: it’s a belief that the play must be done now.” Friedman has transferred five shows from the 180-seat Menier Chocolate Factory in South London. When La Cage aux Folles went to Broadway, Kelsey Grammer was added to the cast. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury joined A Little Night Music. “There are too many producers out there who are glorified accountants,” says David Babani, the Menier’s artistic director. “Sonia knows that different productions need different approaches. Just understanding that is 50 per cent of the job.” Friedman had an unconventional childhood. Her father, a violinist, left their North London home when she was young. She and her three siblings (including the singer, Maria Friedman) would sing and play games “morning, noon and night. There was very, very little parental control.” She learnt early to create her own fun. She and her siblings would make up plays. Then, after being expelled from school for bunking off too much, she went to a progressive boarding school in Hertfordshire called St Christopher’s. Its lack of rules worked for her. “I think not having a father meant I’d never responded well to authority,” she says. “So, of course, I’ve now created a world where I have to be my own boss.” What are her big challenges? High ticket prices. Stars insisting on short runs, which makes it hard to make a profit. Raising money. “The challenge to create great work in the commercial sector is what keeps me going. Because it’s almost impossible.” Oh, and sorting out that work-life balance. She has a boyfriend and is taking more breaks than she used to: “Family is important right now.” She’s made money from theatre. But she claims that she’s wary of too much success. “I worry what will happen to me if I get my Wicked or my Mamma Mia!. I don’t want so much financial security that I don’t have the need to keep pushing.” But more than anything she likes the game of it all, doesn’t she? “I do, I do,” she says. “It is a game, it is a puzzle, and it’s something nobody will ever get right all of the time. So it just keeps you going, thinking, ‘Can I get the next one right?’ It’s a fascinating, fascinating way to spend your life, it really is.” Much Ado About Nothing is at the Wyndhams, WC2 (0844 4825120) until Sept 3 (day seats available). Betrayal is at the Comedy, SW1 (0844 8717627) from Friday to August 20 Accidental Death of An Anarchist (1990) Friedman’s first full show as a producer at the National Theatre toured the country, and played at the Cottesloe. Alan Cumming won an Olivier Award for Best Actor. “I was in my early twenties and it was a success,” recalls Friedman. “I thought: This is easy!” Noises Off (2000) Michael Frayn resisted her suggested revival of his 1982 farce about farces: “He thought it was too soon after the first production. But thankfully he agreed.” Indeed, Frayn tweaked Act Three, and the play ran at the National Theatre, then in the West End for two years and went to Broadway. Macbeth (2002) When Sean Bean told Friedman he wanted to play the lead role, she felt that, “It was the right combination. He was at the right point in his career and I don’t think there had been a Macbeth in London for a while. It completely knocked my socks off how successful it was.” Jerusalem (2009-11) “It got very good reviews when it opened at the Royal Court but it wasn’t seen as commercial. Its success has made me rethink what is possible in the West End. Positioning Jerusalem was harder in New York. It’s an English play about the state of our nation. And, given that a huge proportion of the theatregoing audience is Jewish, you have to make it clear that it’s not about Israel!” Read the full article here . Up Up

Back to News & Press PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL Releases a Behind the Scenes Extract of Brand-New Song "Rhythm Of London" and Announces Cast Album Release on Decca Records Thursday, 20 November 2025 With PADDINGTON The Musical now in previews at the Savoy Theatre , producers Sonia Friedman Productions , STUDIOCANAL and Eliza Lumley Productions on behalf of Universal Music UK announce a £35 lottery scheme, alongside the release of a behind-the-scenes extract of a brand-new song from the musical Rhythm of London and confirmation of the release date of the cast album, now available for pre-order. Each month, a number of stalls seats for £35 will be available via a lottery for the performances across the following month, including for sold-out performances. To enter, patrons can sign up via: https://paddingtonthemusical.com/lottery/ . The first draw will take place on 3 December for performances throughout January 2026, and then monthly thereafter. For full details and terms and conditions, please check the website. The production recently extended until October 2026, with tickets available from £25 and over 45,000 seats available for under £40. Best availability from March 2026. Also announced today is the ‘Paddington The Musical - Original Cast Recording’ which will be released by Decca Records in March 2026, and on collectible vinyl edition in May 2026. Recorded with the complete West End cast, and full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Up Up

Back to News & Press Five Star Hit - 1984 - Transfers to the West End's Playhouse Theatre Friday, 7 March 2014 A new adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Ave, London, WC2N 5DE 28 April –19 July 2014 www.1984ThePlay.co.uk Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s critically acclaimed adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece will come to the West End, directly from the Almeida Theatre, for a strictly limited 12-week run at the Playhouse Theatre from 28 April - 19 July 2014, with Press Night on 8 May. “This is a rigorous and prodigiously confident reimagining of Orwell’s dystopian nightmare” Evening Standard Tickets on sale from today. For each performance of this stunning show which, among many other things, brought the concept of Big Brother and Room 101 into the public consciousness, there will be 101 tickets available each day for the price of £19.84. “This is a staging that reconsiders a classic with such steely power that it chills Brain, Blood and Bone” The Times 1984 is a new adaptation of George Orwell’s novel created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, designed by Chloe Lamford, with lighting by Natasha Chivers, sound by Tom Gibbons and video designed by Tim Reid. Originally produced by Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre, 1984 had its world premiere at Nottingham Playhouse in September and enjoyed a hugely successful UK tour. George Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949, is one of the most influential novels in recent history, with its chilling depiction of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind-control. Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell’s fiction is often said to be our reality. Filtering the spirit and the ambition of the novel through the lens of contemporary culture, this radical new staging explores surveillance culture, identity and how thinking you can fly might actually be the first step to flying. Up Up

Back to News & Press Harry Potter and the Cursed Child receives 6 Tony Awards Saturday, 9 June 2018 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has won 6 Tony Awards® including Best Play—making it the most awarded show of the season. Best Play Director of a Play – John Tiffany Scenic Design of a Play – Christine Jones Lighting Design of a Play – Neil Austin Costume Design of a Play – Katrina Lindsay Sound Design of a Play – Gareth Fry Up Up

Back to News & Press Sonia Friedman Speaks With Baz Bamigboye About Her Career Thus Far Tuesday, 17 May 2022 It was a life-changing moment for her, working with playwrights who directed their own work. “I fell in love at that point, particularly with new work, watching actors mine something that no one else in the world has ever seen before.” Read the full article here Up Up