Maria Friedman to Star in London Follies in Concert

By Andrew Gans
03 Nov 2006

Maria Friedman with Follies songwriter, Stephen Sondheim
Maria Friedman with Follies songwriter, Stephen Sondheim
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

The upcoming City Center Encores! production of Follies will boast Tony Award winner Victoria Clark as Sally Durant Plummer, while the London Palladium benefit concert of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman work will feature Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman in that role.

Friedman, according to the actress' official website, will play the former Follies girl in the Feb. 4, 2007, concert staging of the musical, which will benefit Starlight Children's Foundation and the Kingston Hospital Cancer Unit Appeal.

The one-night-only event will also feature Liz Robertston as Phyllis Rogers Stone, Philip Quast as Ben Stone, Michael Praed as Buddy Plummer, Laura Michelle Kelly as Young Sally, Summer Strallen as Young Phyllis, Adam-Jon Fiorentino as Young Ben, Neil McDermott as Young Buddy, Josephine Barstow as Heidi Schiller, Charlotte Page as Young Heidi, Bonaventura Bottone as Roscoe, Liliane Montevecchi as Solange La Fitte, Imelda Staunton as Hattie Walker, Ian Talbot as Dimitri Weismann, Paul Killick as Vincent, Angela Rippon as Vanessa and Trevor McDonald as the Radio Announcer.

Bill Deamer will direct and choreograph the 8:15 PM concert, and the creative team will also include Richard Balcombe (musical director), Mark Nimmin (lighting design) and Gareth Owen (sound design).

Follies, with songs by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, was originally directed by Harold Prince on Broadway in 1971. Since then, it has received a legendary star-filled concert at Lincoln Center in 1985, a Roundabout revival on Broadway directed by Matthew Warchus in 2001, and numerous regional mountings, including a Paper Mill Playhouse engagement that featured Donna McKechnie and the late Ann Miller. The classic Sondheim score also boasts such tunes as "I'm Still Here," "Broadway Baby," "Could I Leave You?," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" and "The Road You Didn't Take."

Maria Friedman made her Broadway last season in The Woman in White playing Marian, a role she created on the London stage. She won her third Olivier Award for her performance as Mother in the West End production of Ragtime. She also won Oliviers for her one-woman show, Maria Friedman—By Special Arrangement, and for her work as Fosca in the London production of Sondheim's Passion. She received Olivier nominations for her roles as Dot in Sunday in the Park with George and Roxie in Chicago. Friedman's other stage credits include Lady in the Dark, Blues in the Night, April in Paris, Break of Day, Square Rounds, The Witches of Eastwick and Ragtime. She can also be seen as the Narrator in the film video of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The London Palladium is located on Argyll Street in London. For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.seetickets.com.