Three-time Olivier winner Maria Friedman gave a one-night-only concert to a rapturous, sold-out crowd March 4 at Broadway's Hudson Theatre, currently hosting the Friedman-helmed revival of Merrily We Roll Along. See photos from the event—given as a benefit for Broadway Cares, The Stephen Sondheim Foundation, and The Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards—in the gallery below.
Legacy: An Evening With Maria Friedman and Friends saw the West End star revisiting some of her most beloved London stage performances, which include Dot in Sunday in the Park With George and Fosca in Passion. In a special encore, Friedman also reprised a bit of her iconic performance as the Narrator in the 1999 film version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
READ: Maria Friedman Is Finally Bringing Her Olivier-Winning Performances to Broadway
Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman
Legacy: An Evening with Maria Friedman & Friends
Maggie Lickani, Senna Prasatthong, Zoe Brooke Reed, Hannah Jewel Kohn, Brooke Taylor, Maria Friedman, Yasmyn Sumiyoshi, Alana Janai, Sophie Aknin, Tay Marquise, Rixey Terry, Jalen Jones, Cullen Zeno, Luke Rands, Devin Cortez, Joey Morof and Jules Geiss
Savy Jackson
Santino Fontana
Maria Friedman
As for those friends, Friedman was joined by Tony winner Santino Fontana and Broadway Bad Cinderella alum Savy Jackson. She was also backed by a choir of recent performing arts college graduates, including Maggie Lickani, Senna Prasatthong, Zoe Brooke Reed, Hannah Jewel Kohn, Brooke Taylor, Yasmyn Sumiyoshi, Alana Janai, Sophie Aknin, Tay Marquise, Rixey Terry, Jalen Jones, Cullen Zeno, Luke Rands, Devin Cortez, Joey Morof, and Jules Geiss.
Music director Theo Jamieson led a 12-piece orchestra from the piano, all playing Jamieson's own arrangements and orchestrations.
Friedman made her Broadway debut in 2005 starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, but she's spent the majority of her stage career in London's West End. Among her major roles there are Dot in the first London Sunday in the Park With George, Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, Fosca in Passion (Olivier Award), Sukie in The Witches of Eastwick, Roxie in Chicago, Mother in Ragtime (Olivier Award), Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof. She also played the Narrator in the aforementioned screen version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Mother Abbess in the U.K.'s The Sound of Music Live!
Friedman first directed Merrily We Roll Along for Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012, and the production's West End transfer won Best Musical Revival at the 2014 Olivier Awards. The production's current Broadway bow is Friedman's Broadway directorial debut.
