The production will officially open March 27 and is currently scheduled to run through May 4. Accompanied by an 11-piece band, playing some 37 instruments between them, Friedman will perform newly arranged songs by Stephen Sondheim, Jacques Brel, Burt Bacharach, Jason Robert Brown, Andrew Lippa, George Gershwin, Kander and Ebb, Randy Newman, Michel Legrand and Stevie Wonder.

Friedman's first solo show, By Special Arrangement, won its star a 1995 Best Entertainment Olivier Award. That show was originally seen at the Donmar Warehouse in 1994, and subsequently restaged the following year at the West End's Whitehall Theatre in another run, re-titled By Extra Special Arrangement. Her later Oliviers were won in 1997 and 2004 for, respectively, originating the role of Fosca in the British premiere of Sondheim and Lapine's Passion at the Queens Theatre in 1996 and the role of Mother in Ragtime at the Piccadilly Theatre in 2003.

Among Friedman's many other stage credits are the original West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White in 2004 (subsequently reprising her performance in the show's Broadway premiere in 2005), taking over as Roxie Hart in Chicago in 1998 (for which she was Olivier-nominated), and the British premiere of Sunday in the Park With George at the National Theatre in 1990. Last summer she appeared in the Royal Festival Hall concert version of Sweeney Todd, playing Mrs. Lovett opposite Bryn Terfel in the title role. She has also played three cabaret seasons at New York's Café Carlyle.

To book tickets call the box office at 0207 907 7060; for more information visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com.