Maria Friedman: From ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ leading lady to director

David Buchanan
·3 min read
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In 2022, Marianne Elliott won the Tony Award for directing a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company.” In her speech, she thanked the late composer for trusting her to put a “woman front and center” in her gender-bent production. Indeed, her victory was a major milestone for female directors. She became the first woman to win three times for directing. It was also the first time a woman took home a Tony for helming a Sondheim musical, and just the fifth instance of a woman winning for directing a tuner.

At the upcoming 2024 Tonys, Maria Friedman could accomplish those latter two feats, too. She is the visionary performer-turned-director who has achieved what would have been unfathomable to theatergoers back in 1981 — making the Sondheim and George Furth musical “Merrily We Roll Along” a hit on Broadway. But she definitely has a “good thing going” with her production of the notorious flop, which is now not just a critical success, but also a box office smash as it breaks ticket sales records at the Hudson Theatre.

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SEE ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ reviews: ‘Exquisite’ Sondheim revival stars Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, Daniel Radcliffe

Like Elliott’s “Company,” Friedman’s “Merrily” came to Broadway by way of the UK, though this production had a more circuitous path. After starring in a lead role in a production of “Merrily” back in 1992, Friedman first staged the musical in London in 2012 at the Menier Chocolate Factory and then the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2013. A production based on her staging of the show was later mounted by the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in 2017. It was finally New York bound by 2022, beginning Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop and starring the trio of performers at the heart of the Broadway revival — Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe. The current production opened at the Hudson on Oct. 10 and is currently slated to run through March 2024.

Critics praised her staging of the musical on Broadway, which marks the first time it has returned since its disastrous debut. Peter Marks (Washington Post) writes that she offers “seminal insights” into the musical. Sara Holdren (Vulture) claims that Friedman and the ensemble under her direction “render the show exquisite.” Adam Feldman (Time Out New York) says her production “does a superb job” with the flawed material and “trained her eye on just the right stars” when she cast it in New York. Jesse Green (New York Times) labels her direction “unsparing.”

SEE Stephen Sondheim at the Tony Awards: All 75 wins from ‘West Side Story’ to ‘Assassins’

Such notices — and such a box office triumph — usually translate to Tony Awards success. Should Friedman earn a Tony nomination, which would be her first, she would join the only 24 women to ever receive recognition for directing a musical; musicals directed by women have only been nominated in the category 36 times. She would also join an even shorter list of just three female directors nominated for Sondheim productions: Susan H. Schulman for “Sweeney Todd” (1990), Elliott for “Company” (2022), and Lear deBessonet for “Into the Woods” (2023). If she ultimately takes home the trophy, she would follow in the footsteps of Julie Taymor for “The Lion King” (1998), Susan Stroman for “The Producers” (2001), Diane Paulus for “Pippin” (2013), Rachel Chavkin for “Hadestown” (2019), and Elliott.

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