Maria Friedman in Kimberly Akimbo

Maria Friedman is starring in Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre London.

Maria Friedman is an award-winning actress and director.

With a string of awards to her name including three Olivier Awards and eight nominations, Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards, and many other theatre accolades both from the West End and Broadway stage, Maria Friedman is considered one of the UK’s most successful Musical Theatre stars.

Having won an Olivier Award for her one-woman cabaret, Maria Friedman By Special Arrangement at the Donmar (1995), she was then awarded a second for Best Actress in a Musical as ‘Fosca’ in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion (1996) and again for Ragtime (2003).

She is regularly associated with the work of the composer lyricist Stephen Sondheim. She has performed principal roles in Sondheim classics Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George and ‘Mrs Lovett’ in concert performances of Sweeney Todd at the Barbican in 2010. She also appeared in New York, Washington and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, to celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday.

Maria Friedman’s other theatre roles

Maria’s other numerous theatre credits include in Trevor Nunn’s 2019 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Merrily We Roll Along, Blues in the Night, Chicago, The Witches of Eastwick, Anna in The King and I, and Lady in the Dark. In 2004 she originated the role of ‘Marian Halcombe’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, The Woman in White, both in the West End and on Broadway.

Maria Friedman’s screen roles

On screen, Maria joined the cast of long-running soap EastEnders playing ‘Elaine Peacock’ in 2014 and has also appeared as ‘Trish Baynes’ in the popular TV series Casualty, in an early series of Red Dwarf and as the ‘Narrator’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (DVD). She also plated the ‘Mother Abbas’ in ITV’s The Sound of Music Live.

Maria Friedman’s directing credits

Maria Friedman is also an acclaimed director, whose credits include High Society at The Old Vic; Dusty at Theatre Royal Bath; and Merrily We Roll Along at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End, New York Theatre Workshop and Broadway’s Hudson Theatre (Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, Tony nominated for Best Direction of a Musical, Tony Award winner for Best Revival.

Maria also directed the acclaimed film version of Merrily We Roll Along, based on her hit West End and Broadway production.

Maria’s sister is West End and Broadway impresario Sonia Friedman.

Book tickets to Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre London.

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