Happy Birthday to three-time Olivier winner Maria Friedman, born March 19, 1960, in Switzerland and raised in Germany. After her parents divorced, she moved to England with her mother, before leaving home at 16 to live with boyfriend Roland Brine. Among her dozen odd jobs was receptionist for a music company, where she sang on a Marmite jingle. Inspired, she auditioned for a backup group, with whom she toured Europe.
“I got home to find an Equity card popped through the letter-box,” Friedman said, so she and Brine auditioned for a national tour of Oklahoma! He was cast, she wasn’t, but he persuaded the producers to find room for her in the chorus. She made her West End debut with the show and even played Ado Annie. Her subsequent West End shows include Blondel (1983), the short-lived Spin of the Wheel (1987), and Blues in the Night (1987), from which you can watch Friedman sing “Taking a Chance on Love” below.
After Ghetto (1989), a play with songs by Jeremy Sams, Friedman was asked to sing “Broadway Baby” in the concert Being Alive. Stephen Sondheim was impressed enough to suggest she play Dot / Marie in the upcoming Royal National Theatre production of Sunday in the Park with George (1990), for which she earned her first Olivier nomination. Below is a segment about the show broadcast on the Omnibus TV series.
In 1994, she performed her solo show By Special Arrangement on Sunday evenings at Donmar Warehouse, which earned Friedman her first Olivier Award. Two years later, she was Fosca in the London premiere of Passion, for which she won another Olivier. In 1997, Friedman earned her fourth Olivier nomination for the revival of Lady in the Dark and, in 1998, a fifth nomination for Roxie in Chicago. She closed the decade as the Narrator in the video of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999), from which you can watch Friedman sing “Jacob and Sons” below.
She began the next decade in The Witches of Eastwick (2000), before playing Mother in the European concert premiere of Ragtime (2002), which transferred to the West End in 2003 and brought Friedman her third Olivier. She followed with The Woman in White (2004), in which she met husband Adrian Der Gregorian and earned her seventh Olivier nod. In 2005, she won the Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the show. She ended the decade as Anna in The King and I (2009). Below is Friedman singing “Back to Before” from Ragtime.
In 2012, she directed a revival of Merrily We Roll Along at Menier Chocolate Factory, which transferred to the West End and brought Friedman her eighth Olivier nomination. In 2014, Friedman joined the cast of the TV series EastEnders and, in 2015, appeared as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music Live, from which you can watch Friedman sing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” below. In 2019, she returned to the West End as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof.
In 2020, Friedman appeared in the Sondheim tribute Take Me to the World, from which you can watch her sing “Broadway Baby” below, and co-founded Doorstep Productions with her husband. Their company allows people in the U.K. to book West End professionals to perform on their doorsteps, in costume as characters from their favorite shows. Friedman explained, “It was so important to get members of my profession up, out and doing what they do best: touching people’s hearts … and along the way help them pay a few bills.”