British theatre producer Sonia Friedman picked up another Tony Award last night, with her critically acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt taking home Best New Play.
The win marks the fourth time in five years that Friedman, and her Sonia Friedman Productions, have taken the Best New Play Tony Award, with previous winners being Jack Thorne’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, and Mathew Lopez’s The Inheritance.
Those four shows also scooped Best New Play Olivier Awards.
The annual Tony Awards were announced last night, 11 June 2023, at the United Palace in New York, with musical Kimberly Akimbo taking home five awards, the most of the night, followed by Leopoldstadt and Some Like It Hot with four awards each.
Leopoldstadt also picked up Tonys for Best Director of a Play for Patrick Marber, Best Featured Actor in a Play for Brandon Uranowitz, and Best Costume Design of a Play for Brigitte Reiffenstuel.
The play is currently running at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway.
Sonia Friedman said in a statement: “Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece Leopoldstadt has been a huge labour of love for all of us at SFP – a cast of 38, and a production history that spanned the pandemic, seeing the sell-out London production shut down in 2020, and then be one of the first productions leading the way back to live performance in the West End, before transferring to Broadway. To work with the greatest living playwright Tom Stoppard, is the privilege of a lifetime. This play has been in my life for several years and I thank you Tom for entrusting me with your personal masterwork about family, identity, loss, endurance, and survival – your urgent story from the past is so powerfully relevant today AND DEEPLY NEEDED. Your astonishing achievement is testament to the power of LIVE theatre to open hearts and change minds! Thank you to Patrick Marber for your inspiring direction and to the creative team, associates and of course to the entire cast and crew – your commitment, talent and dedication over the past 9 months or so (and for some the past 4 years) has made this all possible. New writing is at the heart of what we do at SFP – collaborating with writers at the very top of their game, and bringing that work into the West End and Broadway to make quality writing accessible to everyone. To have our work recognised in this way over multiple years is testament to the dedication and brilliance not only of the writers, but also creatives, actors, all those backstage, and team at SFP, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Friedman’s other productions currently running on Broadway include New York, New York, which won a Tony last night for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Beowulf Boritt; Funny Girl with Lea Michele; and the forthcoming revival of Maria Friedman’s production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe.
In London, Friedman produces The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, and the West End transfer of Peter Morgan’s Patriots at the Noel Coward Theatre.
Her forthcoming new productions in the West End include Dr Semmelweis at the Harold Pinter Theatre, starring Mark Rylance; and Stranger Things: The First Shadow at the Phoenix Theatre.
Tony Awards 2023 – Full list of winners
