Quick Facts
Biography
Sonia Anne Primrose Friedman OBE (née Freedman; born April 1965) is a British West End and Broadway theatre producer. She is the younger sister of director/actress/singer Maria Friedman, violinist Richard Friedman and Dr Sarah Beecham. Her younger brother, Ben, is a television director (currently director / producer of BRITISH BAKE OFF). On 27 January 2017 Sonia Friedman, was named Producer of the Year for the third year running at The Stage Awards, becoming the first person to win the award three times.
Early life
Friedman is the youngest daughter of Clair Llewelyn Friedman (née Sims), a concert pianist, and the eminent Russian violinist Leonard Friedman, who was leader for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham and co-founder of many national institutions including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Baroque Ensemble. Her father is from a Russian Jewish immigrant family and her mother is English.
Friedman was educated at several schools including St Christopher School, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, and trained as a stage manager at the Central School of Speech and Drama. It was after organising a couple of benefits for World Aids Day during the late 1980s (one of which saw over 200 celebrities working as shop assistants in Covent Garden) that she decided to follow a career as a theatre producer.
Professional career
Theatre Producer
After working at the National Theatre between 1988 and 1993 (fulfilling the various roles of Stage Management, Education Manager, Head of Education and Producer of Mobile Productions and Theatre for Young People), she co-founded the new writing theatre company Out of Joint in 1993 with Max Stafford-Clark. From 1998, Friedman worked as a producer for the Ambassador Theatre Group. She launched her own theatre company, Sonia Friedman Productions, in 2002. Friedman's productions have been nominated for and won numerous Olivier, Tony and other awards. At the 2014 Olivier Awards, Sonia Friedman Productions made Olivier Awards history by winning the most awards for any producer and for winning prizes for Best New Play (Chimerica), Best New Musical (The Book of Mormon), Best Play Revival (Ghosts) and Best Musical Revival (Merrily We Roll Along). In 2017, Sonia Friedman won producer of the year at The Stage Awards for a third year (becoming the first person to win the award three times) and was listed as no.1 on the The Stage power list, the second solo female to hold this position in the award's history and becoming the first person to top the list that wasn't a theatre owner.
Friedman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to theatre.
TV Producer
In 2015 Sonia Friedman Productions co-produced two television dramas, the BAFTA Nominated The Dresser which aired on BBC Two and directly followed after SFP's partnership with Playground Entertainment on the six-part mini-series adaptation of Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' which also aired on BBC Two in January 2015 and won two BAFTA Television Awards in 2016.
Theatre credits
- Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1990)
- Tartuffe (1991)
- The Queen and I (1994)
- The Libertine (1995)
- Shopping and Fucking (1996)
- Blue Kettle / Heart's Desire (1997)
- The Steward of Christendom (1997)
- Three Sisters (1997)
- Spoonface Steinberg (1999)
- Speed the Plow (2000)
- Noises Off (2000)
- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2001)
- Benefactors (2002)
- Up For Grabs (2002)
- Afterplay (2002)
- What the Night Is For (2002)
- Macbeth (2002)
- Ragtime (2003)
- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2003), on Broadway
- Sexual Perversity in Chicago (2003)
- Absolutely! (Perhaps) (2003)
- Hitchcock Blonde (2003)
- See You Next Tuesday (2003)
- Jumpers (2003)
- Calico (2004)
- Endgame (2004)
- Guantánamo (2004)
- The Woman in White (2004)
- By the Bog of Cats (2005)
- Whose Life is it Anyway (2005)
- The Home Place (2005)
- As You Like It (2005)
- Shoot the Crow (2005)
- Celebration (2005)
- Otherwise Engaged (2005)
- The Woman in White (2005) on Broadway
- Donkeys' Years (2006)
- On the Third Day (2006)
- Eh Joe (2006)
- Bent (2006)
- Faith Healer (2006), on Broadway; nominated for a Best Revival Tony Award
- Love Song (2006)
- Rock 'n' Roll (2006)
- King of Hearts (2007)
- The Dumb Waiter (2007)
- Boeing-Boeing (2007)
- In Celebration (2007)
- Rock 'n' Roll (2007), on Broadway
- Is He Dead? (2007), on Broadway
- Donkeys' Years (2007)
- Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, a musical version of Tintin in Tibet (2007)
- Dealer's Choice (2007)
- Boeing-Boeing (2008), in Australia
- Boeing-Boeing (2008), on Broadway
- That Face (2008)
- Under the Blue Sky (2008)
- The Seagull (2008), on Broadway
- No Man's Land (2008)
- La Cage Aux Folles (2008)
- Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged (2008)
- Boeing-Boeing (2009), UK tour
- Dancing at Lughnasa (2009)
- A View from the Bridge (2009)
- A Little Night Music (2009)
- The Norman Conquests (2009), on Broadway
- The Mountaintop (2009)
- Arcadia (2009)
- Othello (2009)
- Prick Up Your Ears (2009)
- After Miss Julie (2009), on Broadway
- Legally Blonde (2009)
- A Little Night Music, on Broadway (2009)
- Jerusalem (2010)
- Private Lives (2010)
- The Prisoner of Second Avenue (2010)
- All My Sons (2010)
- A View from the Bridge (2010), on Broadway
- Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita (2010)
- La Bete (2010), and on Broadway
- A Flea in Her Ear (2010)
- La Cage Aux Folles (2010) on Broadway
- The Children's Hour (2011)
- Clybourne Park (2011)
- Arcadia (2011), on Broadway
- Jerusalem (2011), on Broadway
- The Book of Mormon (2011), on Broadway
- Much Ado About Nothing (2011)
- Betrayal (2011)
- Top Girls (2011)
- La Cage Aux Folles (2011–12), US tour
- The Mountaintop (2011), on Broadway
- Jerusalem (2011–2012)
- Master Class (2012)
- Absent Friends (2012)
- Hay Fever (2012)
- Death of a Salesman (2012), on Broadway
- Nice Work If You Can Get It (2012–2013), on Broadway
- The Sunshine Boys (2012)
- A Chorus of Disapproval (2012–2013)
- Richard the Third (2012–2013)
- Twelfth Night (2012–2013)
- Old Times (2013)
- The Book of Mormon (2013)
- Merrily We Roll Along (2013)
- Chimerica (2013)
- The Sunshine Boys (2013), Los Angeles
- Twelfth Night & Richard III (2013), on Broadway
- Mojo (2013)
- Ghosts (2013)
- 1984 (2013)
- Shakespeare in Love (2014)
- King Charles III (2014)
- Electra, Frank McGuinness translation (2014)
- Sunny Afternoon (2014)
- The River (2014), on Broadway
- The Nether (2014)
- Ghosts (2013), New York
- Bend it Like Beckham (2015)
- 1984 (2015)
- Hamlet (2015)
- Farinelli and The King (2015)
- King Charles III (2015), on Broadway
- A Christmas Carol (2015)
- Funny Girl (2016)
- 1984 (2016)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)
- Sunny Afternoon UK Tour (2016)
- Nice Fish (2016)
- Dreamgirls (2016)
- The Glass Menagerie (2017)
- Travesties (2017)
- Funny Girl UK Tour (2017)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2017)
- The Ferryman (2017), at Royal Court Theatre
- Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (2017)
TV credits
- Wolf Hall (2015)
- The Dresser (2015)
Awards
BAFTA Television Awards
- Wolf Hall, Best Drama Series, 2016
Tony Awards
- A View from the Bridge, Best Revival of a Play, 2016*
- Humans, Best Play, 2016 *
- A Raisin in the Sun, Best Revival of a Play, 2014 *
- Death of a Salesman, Best Revival of a Play, 2012 *
- The Book of Mormon, Best Musical, 2011 *
- La Cage Aux Folles, Best Revival of a Musical, 2010
- The Norman Conquests, Best Revival of a Play, 2009
- Boeing-Boeing, Best Revival of a Play, 2008
* = co producer
Olivier Awards
- Sunny Afternoon, Best New Musical, 2015
- King Charles III, Best New Play, 2015
- The Book of Mormon, Best New Musical, 2014
- Chimerica, Best New Play, 2014
- Merrily We Roll Along, Best Musical Revival, 2014
- Ghosts, Best Revival, 2014
- Legally Blonde, Best New Musical, 2011
- The Mountaintop, Best New Play, 2010
- La Cage Aux Folles, Best Musical Revival, 2009
Evening Standard Theatre Awards
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, Best Play, 2016
- Jerusalem, Best Play, 2009
- Home Place, by Brian Friel, Best Play, 2005
Drama Desk Awards
- The Book of Mormon, Outstanding Musical, 2011
- La Cage aux Folles, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, 2010
- A View From the Bridge, Outstanding Revival of a Play, 2010
- The Norman Conquests, Outstanding Revival of a Play, 2009
- Boeing-Boeing, Outstanding Revival of a Play, 2008
Critics' Circle Theatre Awards
- Bend It Like Beckham, Best Musical, 2016
- King Charles III, Best New Play, 2014
- Chimerica, Best New Play, 2013
- Merrily We Roll Along, Best Musical, 2012
- Clybourne Park, Best New Play, 2011
- Jerusalem, Best New Play, 2010
- La Cage Aux Folles, Best Musical, 2009
Whatsonstage.com Awards
- Hamlet, Best Play Revival, 2016
- Hamlet, Best Actor in a Play, Benedict Cumberbatch, 2016
- Hamlet, Best Set Design, Es Devlin, 2016
- Hamlet, Best Lighting Design, Jane Cox, 2016
- Shakespeare in Love, Best New Play, 2015
- The Book of Mormon, Best New Musical, 2014
- Much Ado About Nothing, David Tennant and Catherine Tate reuniting on stage, Theatre Event of the Year, 2012
- Much Ado About Nothing, Best Shakespearean Production, 2012
- Legally Blonde, by Neil Benjamin, Lawrence O'Keefe & Heather Hach, Best New Musical, 2011
- Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth, Best New Play, 2010
- Under The Blue Sky, by David Eldridge, Best New Play, 2009
- Rock 'n' Roll, by Tom Stoppard, Best New Play, 2007
- Up For Grabs, Theatre Event of the Year, 2003
- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Best Play Revival, 2002
The Stage Awards
- Producer of the Year, 2017
- Producer of the Year, 2016
- Producer of the Year, 2015