Theatre Register

Maria Friedman

Shows · Maria Friedman

Director b. 1960 On stage 2005

Maria Friedman (née Freedman; born 19 March 1960) is a Swiss-born British actress and director, best known for her work in musical theatre. She is a seven-time Laurence Olivier Award nominee, winning three times for acting. Her first win was for her 1994 one-woman show, By Special Arrangement. She twice won as Best Actress in a Musical—for Fosca in the original London production of Passion (1997), and for Mother in the original London production of Ragtime (2004). Friedman played the narrator in the 1999 straight to video version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She played Elaine Peacock in the British television series EastEnders from 2014 to 2017. In 2023 the role was recas…

On stage 1 production

2005 The Woman in White Marquis Theatre · Original · directed by Trevor Nunn 109 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Also credited on2 works

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Merrily We Roll Along (2023 Revival)

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature2 passages

  • In my mind – and this is, of course, the view of an outsider – there is one song that sums up the musical voice of Paris. I first heard it sung by Maria Friedman in an English version by her then-husband Jeremy Sams called “Paris in the Rain ”. Although it comes from a film, “Complainte de la Butte ”’s pedigree covers all bases: its compo…ebooks/Atkey, Mel/Million Miles from Broadway_ Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London, A - Mel Atkey.txt
  • Original London cast (1998) : Maria Friedman, Adrian Dunbar, James Dreyfus, Steven Edward Moore, Charlotte Cornwell. Mark W. Dorrell (conductor). CD: Jay Productions CDJAY 1278.ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — director — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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