Sonia Friedman

Speaker 20:00

This is the

Sonia Friedman0:01

B B C

Presenter0:02

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:13

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:40

My castaway this week is the theatre producer Sonia Friedman. Her combined attributes of artistic flair and commercial nous have taken her to the very top. She currently has eight shows running in the West End, and will shortly have a total of four on Broadway.

Presenter0:56

Her success is then indisputable, but her range is truly fascinating, with a sense of creative vigour that seems irresistible to audiences and performers alike. From the social significance of Jerusalem with Mark Rylance to the sheer vaudevillian pizzazz of Sheridan Smith's Funny Girl, what's striking in our box set T V centred culture is her consistent ability to get stars on stage and bums on theatre seats.

Presenter1:22

The story of how she got to the top has all the makings of a gripping three act drama itself, with a plot that includes an eminent violinist father who abandoned the family as she was born, a brilliant concert pianist mother struggling to bring up her four kids alone.

Presenter1:36

And an unhappy adolescence marked by bullying and truanting. She says of her life now, It's literally an electricity when you are standing in the back of the theatre. You just feel it. It's addictive. And the more you do and the more difficulty you face, the more you're determined to try it again. And the great thing about doing the job I do is that ideas will never run out. Welcome, Sonia Friedman. And when and where do the ideas come and how do you capture them when they do come?

Sonia Friedman2:05

Usually it's about how I'm feeling.

Sonia Friedman2:09

And about what I feel I need to see and hear at any point in my life. It could be that I'm desperate for some, I don't know, political answers. It could be that I actually just want a good laugh. It could be that I need nourishment in terms of music. And so everything's instinctive. I never have a plan.

Sonia Friedman2:34

I never try and second guess what anybody else wants. I only do what I feel I need. And I can absolutely say that every decision I make comes from a place of passion and love.

Presenter2:49

And so your productions then point to a very fulsome and complex character, because we have Shakespeare, we have revivals, we've got new work, we've got one woman shows, we've got musicals. That's a very wide range. Do you think

Speaker 32:59

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman2:59

Vames

Presenter3:01

That is unusually wide because you're representing lots of parts of of who you are.

Sonia Friedman3:05

Yeah, I'm I'm as happy listening to a Shakespearean monologue.

Sonia Friedman3:11

as I am to hearing a great Broadway belt.

Sonia Friedman3:17

And, indeed, Pinter has to be in there too, and so does Stoppard, and so does Jez Butterworth. And it's almost like I'm I'm greedy.

Presenter3:26

Let's go to the music, Sonia Friedman. Tell me about this first one. What is it and why have you chosen it?

Presenter3:31

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman3:31

This first piece is by Imogen Heap and John Tiffany, the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is a play I produced last year.

Sonia Friedman3:42

He played me this piece of music as an example of what the emotion at the centre of the play is going to be. So this piece of music will always be incredibly important to me, even though it's not in the show in this way.

Speaker 34:01

Go here.

Speaker 34:07

Is going on.

Speaker 34:11

Dust has owned.

Speaker 34:18

Begin to fall.

Speaker 34:22

Crop circles in the cup

Speaker 34:27

Singy.

Speaker 34:30

Feeling

Presenter4:34

That was Imogen Heap and Hide and Seek. I want to ask you, Sonia Friedman, you're at number one in the power list of theatre land now above many of the biggest names, ahead of Cameron McIntosh and so on and so on. You must surely, in this career of producing many, many, many plays and musicals have had a stinker or two. What's been your biggest stinker? I'm not going to talk about my stinkers. But you can because you are who you are, I'm sure.

Sonia Friedman5:02

No, I wouldn't do that because it's individuals involved. It's personal. And actually, I've never had a stinker insofar as I'm embarrassed to have my name attached to it. Certainly there's been work where it's happened and I've gone, well, that didn't quite work out as I'd hoped it would. But I've never had a stinker. Do you ever take critics to task? Do you ever pick up the phone and say, how dare you? No, actually I quite like that relationship we have with critics.

Presenter5:06

Right.

Presenter5:23

Say how dare

Sonia Friedman5:29

I think particularly now with the world of social media, where

Sonia Friedman5:33

From the moment you have your first preview.

Sonia Friedman5:36

People are talking about you. There is a consensus building that Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and all these things I'm having to learn about every day are giving an on the spot response to the work. But we need critics. I think audiences need critics because there comes a moment where you don't actually know where to look because of all the noise. And so long as those theatre critics are experienced and know what they're talking about, and there are some that don't, but most do, good work will always get the support of the critics.

Presenter6:13

You must have had many hundreds of opening nights now. But I'm wondering about that first one. I don't know what it was, actually. What was the production?

Sonia Friedman6:21

Very, very first thing I produced was Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

Presenter6:24

And so, when you stand at the back of a theatre and you watch your production for the first time and the curtain rises on that night, what were your feelings?

Presenter6:32

You're you're

Sonia Friedman6:34

your heart thumps. You hope you've done everything to get the production team and the creative team to a point where they can do their job, but you're powerless.

Sonia Friedman6:46

as a producer at that point. I'll always be somewhere, I'll be lurking, but you will never see me sitting. I'm too anxious. You know, when you've got as many productions running as I do in any one day, you can have a fantastic thing happening at ten past ten in the morning, and then by twenty past ten in the morning it's all gone wrong again.

Sonia Friedman7:06

I I

Sonia Friedman7:08

I love what I do, but I do not know why I do it, because I live my life in a constant state of anxiety.

Presenter7:17

Yeah. Let's have some music to comfort you at least, Sonia Freedom.

Sonia Friedman7:19

We are going to hear my mum.

Sonia Friedman7:23

playing a Debussy piece when I was a little girl.

Sonia Friedman7:28

I would wake up and hear her practising.

Sonia Friedman7:32

and trying to be better. But the huge sadness I now know was that she was just doing it for herself because she was no longer able to be a professional pianist, because her life hadn't worked out that way. And she still plays to this day. She's eighty-five and this is her playing Claire de Lune.

Presenter9:07

Debussy's Claire de Lune performed by our castaway's mother, Claire Llewellyn Friedman. That was uh recorded specially for us and for the programme, Sonia. So a very, very musical family. Your father was lead violin with uh the Royal Philharmonic and played centre stage in many other uh musical configurations over the years. You've described your upbringing as chaotic and bohemian. Tell me more about it.

Sonia Friedman9:30

Um, it was wonderful for the first seven or eight years. Um, chaotic because there was no real parental

Sonia Friedman9:40

influence or authority in the home.

Sonia Friedman9:44

My memory is the house was just full of animals and music, but never any food and certainly no structure. Um and we four children survived through creativity, games and I literally have no memory of ever being told to go to bed, being woken up to go to school, family meals, yet I know I had the most extraordinary first few

Presenter10:20

Yes. You were the last of four. And I I used the word in the introduction and I mean it is it's it's a strong word to use. I said that your father abandoned the family. Yes. That's pretty much it.

Sonia Friedman10:32

Totally. Um

Sonia Friedman10:34

I mean, coming onto this programme today, I asked

Sonia Friedman10:38

My mum, I said, When did dad go? And you know, it's all a bit hazy.

Sonia Friedman10:43

but probably several months before I was born.

Sonia Friedman10:47

So as a result, I've never really had a dad, which which um I know is uh something that's completely formed who I am.

Sonia Friedman10:55

So, you know, I I've I've never had abandonment issues, but I've certainly um rejection.

Sonia Friedman11:01

Because you want to form a relationship with your father, and my father was.

Sonia Friedman11:07

was a very prominent, high profile, classical musician.

Sonia Friedman11:11

Co-founder of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Opera, he had a huge career in Edinburgh.

Sonia Friedman11:17

How often would you see him typically?

Presenter11:18

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman11:20

Once a year, maybe?

Sonia Friedman11:22

you know, if there was a concert or something, maybe we'd go and sort of sit in the in an auditorium and and watch him play or something. But, you know, I I I I um I had no relationship with him other than he would sort of, you know, say hello to me and

Sonia Friedman11:38

Maybe pat me on the head or something. I never got a birthday present from him. I never got a Christmas present from him.

Sonia Friedman11:44

Um and I don't blame him. I I I know that you know as a kid he had a very difficult life. His parents pushed him and pushed him and pushed him to be an extraordinary musician and he was told, put your music first, put your art first and eventually he did.

Sonia Friedman12:04

Yeah.

Presenter12:04

He's passed away now, but did you ever have it out with him? Did you ever have the big conversation?

Sonia Friedman12:09

No, no. Um he died in ninety four and

Sonia Friedman12:15

The day or two before he died I had an urge, a need to see him.

Sonia Friedman12:21

And he happily had supper with me, and at the end of the supper,

Sonia Friedman12:26

He just turned to me and he said, Sonora, I'm very proud of you.

Sonia Friedman12:32

Those were my the last words he ever said to me.

Sonia Friedman12:35

And he never said I love you to me, but he did say I'm proud of you.

Presenter12:41

Let's turn to the music, Sonia Friedman. This is your third choice of the morning.

Sonia Friedman12:46

Oh God. Um so this is my dad and my brother, Ricky, Richard Friedman, who's ten years older than me. He really took the role of my dad as I was growing up. And Richard is another extraordinary violinist.

Sonia Friedman13:03

And my brother joined my father's orchestra.

Sonia Friedman13:07

And this is them together.

Sonia Friedman13:11

Think in the late eighties performing

Sonia Friedman13:14

The second movement of the Bach double.

Presenter14:24

That was part of the second movement of Bach's concerto for two violins in D minor, played by the members of the Scottish Baroque Ensemble, with your father, Leonard, and your brother, Richard, both on violin there, Sonia Friedman. You've said of your childhood that we literally got lost in stories as a means of survival. So it's clear there wasn't much in the fridge, nobody was waking you up for school, but there was this very rich creative environment. Tell me more about the stories.

Sonia Friedman14:49

So, um, my brother Ricky, um, he created a company called The Sonya Friedman.

Sonia Friedman14:58

Production company.

Sonia Friedman15:00

How old were you?

Sonia Friedman15:01

Three. Right. Did he spot it in you or no no, it was simply a vehicle for him to pr to play his music.

Presenter15:03

No.

Sonia Friedman15:10

And I could star in the shows with my sister Sarah and Maria.

Sonia Friedman15:16

And all the imagination, all the stories came from him. They were surreal, they were wild, nothing was scripted. He would musicalize everything. And we have hours and hours of taped plays in his attic. And we did lose ourselves and would.

Presenter15:39

Yeah. Not go to school. Now where was your mother in all of this? Because of course having four young children and having n uh she got no financial support from your from your father, how was she surviving financially and emotionally?

Sonia Friedman15:49

Support.

Sonia Friedman15:56

I can't answer the emotional. Um I think she struggled. Um but financially what she did was she went out and she she was a linguist, so she would take Germans and Italians and French around London. She became a London guide. She would do piano lessons. M my memory of mum was simply that she was always out doing something.

Sonia Friedman16:20

Um but she had to

Presenter16:22

To keep four kids. You sit opposite me today with this wonderful, sort of, vibrant, strawberry blonde hair. There was a time, I think, when you were a teenager, that it was was it white your hair?

Sonia Friedman16:32

Yeah, I I dyed my hair white. That was probably when I was about twelve. At the age of eight. No, I was ten. All my siblings suddenly left home. So a house full of life and love and games and music and fun suddenly became empty. And that was the darkest, certainly the darkest time.

Sonia Friedman16:59

Ever for me, and I at that point did experience.

Sonia Friedman17:07

Huge.

Sonia Friedman17:08

abandonment and rejection issues, and didn't really know how to be me without my siblings around me. So I became a bit rebellious and I dyed my hair. I became a rockabilly.

Sonia Friedman17:25

And I went through quite a lot of secondary schools, and the second school I went to was pretty rough.

Sonia Friedman17:33

I

Presenter17:33

Um

Sonia Friedman17:34

Eventually to

Presenter17:34

Just never went to school. More to come, Sonia Friedman. For now though, let's have some music. And I want you to tell me about this fourth piece.

Sonia Friedman17:41

Well, this is my sister, Maria Friedman, and I am so moved by literally everything she ever performs.

Sonia Friedman17:51

This song is Son Time. Son Time takes me to places no other musical theatre composer takes me.

Sonia Friedman18:01

This is from Sunday in the Park with George, which I first saw Maria do at the National Theatre. And it's called Children and Art. It's also about life, my mum and us as kids.

Sonia Friedman18:15

Yeah.

Speaker 218:15

You would have loved her.

Speaker 218:21

Mama enjoy things.

Speaker 218:24

Mama was smart. See how she shimmers. I mean from the heart.

Speaker 218:34

I know, honey, you don't agree.

Speaker 218:38

This is our family tree.

Speaker 218:41

Just wait till we're there and you'll see.

Speaker 218:44

Listen to me.

Speaker 218:47

Listen to mamma.

Speaker 218:50

Children and all.

Presenter18:53

Children and Ours, composed by Stephen Sondheim. It was the man himself on piano there and the singer was your sister Maria Frieden. Uh Sonia, your mother managed to sort of she kind of hustled a grant out of the local authorities.

Sonia Friedman19:05

You went to a

Presenter19:08

And you went to a boarding school.

Sonia Friedman19:09

Yeah. I I went to a progressive, co educational, vegetarian boarding school. There were no rules. So if you didn't go to class, nobody reprimanded you. The only punishment was that you were left out.

Sonia Friedman19:24

And so what happened was you began to conform.

Sonia Friedman19:28

I found that the lack of structure completely

Presenter19:33

Worked for me. You went on to college and and you studied, among other things, stage management. And I want to ask you about your f I mean, we all remember our first job interview, but yours is particularly noteworthy. Well, I hope I'm right in this. The kitchen table that you sat around and you were interviewed by was that of Laurence Olivier and Joan Flowright. Is that right?

Sonia Friedman19:50

Yes, um, it wasn't my first interview. This was the end of my drama school training at Central. Yeah. So I was 19.

Presenter19:56

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman19:58

and Joan Plowright and Richard Olivier, Olivier and Plowright's son, were directing a double bill, and they needed a stage manager, and they had an equity card to give away. I knocked on the door,

Sonia Friedman20:12

and I walked into the kitchen and Joan Plowright and Laurence Olivier were sitting there. Laurence Olivier was having lunch.

Sonia Friedman20:23

He was eating a chicken salad.

Sonia Friedman20:26

and I sat at the other end of the table,

Sonia Friedman20:29

Absolutely gobsmacked.

Sonia Friedman20:32

And he and Joan just asked me questions about why I wanted to do theatre, what I'd learnt. The reason I'd got in the door is because I knew their daughter, who I'd gone to drama school with.

Sonia Friedman20:43

Anyway, I got the job. No, um, I wanted to be a cellist.

Sonia Friedman20:52

And I loved singing.

Sonia Friedman20:55

But with an incredibly gifted older sister and a violinist brother.

Sonia Friedman21:02

I knew that I had to be good.

Sonia Friedman21:06

And quite early on,

Sonia Friedman21:08

Well, yeah, I think when I was about eleven, again during the difficult moment.

Sonia Friedman21:13

I gave it up and I will always regret that.

Presenter21:16

By the time you were in your twenties you were working at the National Theatre under Richard Eyre and you you worked directly, I think, for a time there with Harold Pinter. Very complex character, a man of meticulous precision. How did you get on with him?

Speaker 321:24

Can you

Sonia Friedman21:29

I absolutely loved him.

Sonia Friedman21:32

One of the very, very first jobs I did at the National was to be deputy stage manager.

Sonia Friedman21:38

for a new play that Harold Pinter had written called Mountain Language.

Sonia Friedman21:42

And, you know, only two years before I'd been studying him, and suddenly I'm sitting next to him in a room.

Sonia Friedman21:48

But there was an extraordinary moment when

Sonia Friedman21:51

He just turned to me and he said uh Sonia.

Sonia Friedman21:55

I think we need a pause at this point. Will you just write pause in there? And I had to write a Harold Pinter pause in the prompt script, which I think is still at the British Library to day. Yeah, that was amazing.

Presenter22:11

Right, time for some more music, Sonia. We're on your fifth. Tell me about this.

Sonia Friedman22:15

So this is Merrily We Roll Along. Sondime again. I co-produced this production of Merrily, which my sister Maria directed. And Merrily is, I think probably along with Sunday in Park with George, my favourite Saundime, it's about the future and it's about looking back and possibly wondering whether you could have done things in a slightly different way.

Speaker 322:42

It's our heads on the black

Sonia Friedman22:43

It's our heads on the block

Speaker 322:46

Give us room and start the clock

Speaker 322:50

A dream coming true, me and you, pal, me and you.

Speaker 322:57

Me and you.

Speaker 322:59

Me and you.

Speaker 323:00

Me and you, me and you, me and you.

Presenter23:10

Our time from the twenty thirteen West End production of Stephen Songheim's Medrily We Roll Along, sung there by Mark Umbers, Damien Humbley and Jenna Russell. So Sonia Friedman, where did you get well, two things actually, the cash and the confidence to start your own company?

Presenter23:27

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman23:27

Well, it didn't happen overnight. I mean, at the National Theatre, Richard Eyre gave me a

Presenter23:30

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman23:33

a fantastic opportunity which en en enabled me to

Sonia Friedman23:37

produce, but without having any of the the financial responsibility because of course it was a government funded organisation. That's where I got my producing training, which really means, you know, read a play, put a director, cast it, str find the structure, theatre, book a tour, whatever. I then left the National Theatre and formed a a theatre company with Max Stafford Clark called Out of Joint. And that's when I started to mix the creation of work with raising funds. You you look around, you know, you you see who who might be out there investing in work and you you you pick the phone up and you you dare ask the question. In terms of creating my own company,

Sonia Friedman24:21

It's a long, complex story, but the bottom line is I approached the Ambassador Theatre Group, who's now the largest theatre owner in the world, and said, I want to form a theatre company, will you back me?

Presenter24:32

You've transferred a number of productions to Broadway, and you you've spoken uh about New York uh before and said that it is a producer's town. Well, that's an interesting phrase.

Sonia Friedman24:41

Everybody knows a show's arriving on Broadway, from the cab drivers to the shops to the cops. Because in the West End you've got 50 or 60 productions a night, on Broadway you have a third of that. And so it's a big deal to open a show there. It's about energy on Broadway and it means the stakes are really high. Everything is so much more expensive. So a play that could cost five or six hundred thousand pounds to produce here in London won't cost less than four and a half million dollars now. So you know that you can you can lose a lot and in New York if you don't open big you're out. Whereas in London you can open quite well and bumble along.

Presenter25:32

Time for some more music, Sonia Friedman. This is your sixth disc of the day. What are we going to hear now?

Sonia Friedman25:36

Well, it's my family again.

Sonia Friedman25:38

This is my brother, Richard Friedman. I would not be a producer if it weren't for him. And I would not know what real care and love is if it weren't for, frankly, all my family. And Ricky is performing Lark Ascending.

Presenter27:02

Vaughan Williams, the Larkis Ending, played there by Richard Friedman with the London Festival Orchestra conducted by Ross Popol. Uh the business end of your day then, Sonia, obviously. I mean it it starts when most people's day ends, you know, at sort of seven in the evening when the theatres start to fill up.

Sonia Friedman27:16

Yeah.

Presenter27:18

What impact has that had on your private life?

Sonia Friedman27:21

Well, um, I've never had a family, not a conventional one.

Sonia Friedman27:27

you know, in my thirties. As it happens, I d I did meet somebody and

Sonia Friedman27:31

helped bring up two children, so I think I can say I have two stepchildren and I'm proud to say it, although I broke up with their father. But over the years I've used the word sacrifice, but it's not a sacrifice. It's a choice and I'm content with that choice. It does mean that I have a huge amount of love to give to everybody around me.

Sonia Friedman27:58

my family, but also people I work with who I love like family, who I shout at like family, but who I think know that I love them too and I do think that has has got something to do with my quote unquote success. I'm working at 2am, 4am, 8am and I'm in that theatre whatever time I need to be if there's a problem. And of course I could not do that if I was having to be at home cooking a meal for my family.

Presenter28:35

Well, I admire your absolute honesty in that, and the thing that strikes me is

Presenter28:39

If there was a man sitting opposite me, he would not have said that he had to make that choice in order to be as successful as you are. Is that fair?

Sonia Friedman28:46

Yes, and in so making the choice I'm also aware that there is a gap.

Sonia Friedman28:52

at the centre of my life too.

Presenter28:54

Right.

Sonia Friedman28:55

Um, but I fill that gap now in a way that is incredibly fulfilling. I can't regret anything. Um look, I'm at a particular point in my life now, at my age, where I'm evaluating certain things, but I fill it with m more shows, more work.

Sonia Friedman29:16

But it's it's not I'm not unhappy about it. I have a wonderful relationship with my boyfriend. He's quite a bit younger than me and is just so proud of what I do and just never ever stops encouraging me. You say a fair bit. Can I ask how much? Enough.

Sonia Friedman29:42

I refer you to our our maybe our new President of France.

Presenter29:46

Ah So twenty odd years.

Sonia Friedman29:48

Yeah.

Presenter29:48

Clear.

Sonia Friedman29:48

I love seeing the world through his eyes, and it certainly makes me better at my job because I'm aware of a younger generation's interests, politics, struggles as well as

Presenter30:01

As my own. Let's have some more music, Sonia Friedman. We're going to hear your seventh. Tell me about this. What are we going to hear now?

Sonia Friedman30:10

So as a family we used to always get together, still do, and whenever we get together we try to create music. And this is my mum, my brother, my sister Sarah and my sister Maria and uh me singing a song from Fiddler on the roof.

Speaker 330:30

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset Swiftly grow the days Sables turn overnight to sun flowers Blossoming even as we gaze

Speaker 330:58

Sunrise, sunset.

Presenter31:02

Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof, composed by Jerry Brock, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and sung there by the Friedman family. You were in pretty good voice, all of you, Sonia Friedman. Um Harry Potter and the Cursed Child then is probably it has taken you on to as somebody who was successful. You are now at a stratospheric level in terms of success.

Sonia Friedman31:11

Excellent.

Presenter31:22

With this production. It it won a record-breaking nine awards at this year's Oliviers. Nine Oliviers, yeah. Nine Oliviers, yeah. You took the original idea, as I understand it, to J. K. Rowling herself. And I'm not going to give away anything about the plot, but you wanted to produce let's just say you wanted to produce a show about loss.

Sonia Friedman31:27

Yeah.

Presenter31:38

Is would that be fair?

Sonia Friedman31:40

Yeah.

Presenter31:40

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman31:40

Um

Sonia Friedman31:41

Yes, my co-producing partner Colin Callender and I, we produce this together. We.

Sonia Friedman31:49

We were very drawn to the notion of

Sonia Friedman31:54

Harry is a dad.

Sonia Friedman31:56

Given that he hadn't had

Sonia Friedman31:58

parents of his own. And Joe loved that idea. It's very interesting you chose a story about a dad, isn't it? Well, of course. I mean, I I will never understand what it will be like to have a dad.

Presenter32:05

I chose

Sonia Friedman32:12

And so I'm always looking for stories that will might help me understand, and I feel incredibly privileged and blessed that I can use

Sonia Friedman32:21

My emotional background and my experiences.

Sonia Friedman32:26

to encourage others

Sonia Friedman32:30

to put it on to paper.

Sonia Friedman32:32

and then to put it on to a stage. That must be an extraordinary experience.

Presenter32:36

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman32:37

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman32:38

It is. I mean, I

Sonia Friedman32:40

I wish I could write myself.

Sonia Friedman32:43

I wish I could sing, I wish I could compose, I wish I could paint.

Sonia Friedman32:49

I can't do those things, but I seem to have an ability to tap in.

Sonia Friedman32:57

To what?

Sonia Friedman32:59

Other people want to hear and see and feel, and so if I have any gift.

Sonia Friedman33:06

It's about being able to get others.

Sonia Friedman33:10

to communicate.

Sonia Friedman33:11

Emotion and bring everybody together and let them then do what they can do, and that'll then just.

Sonia Friedman33:19

Watch in awe.

Presenter33:21

I can't imagine you've taken many holidays in the last fifteen years, have you, Yum?

Sonia Friedman33:25

I don't do holidays. I don't enjoy them.

Presenter33:26

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman33:28

So how will you be on the island, this desert island?

Presenter33:29

And this desert island.

Sonia Friedman33:30

Yeah.

Presenter33:30

Uh

Sonia Friedman33:31

Actually, I'll be fine. I enjoy my own company. I enjoy thinking. I love animals. And I'll be surrounded.

Sonia Friedman33:38

by so many cute little furry, feathery things. Big creepy crawly things too, you know. No, I'll I'll no, but my furry things will look after the creepy, crawly things.

Presenter33:49

Tell me about your final piece. What are you going to hear, Sonia Friedman?

Sonia Friedman33:52

So this is a song from a show I'm currently producing, Dream Girls. We're talking about standing at the back of the auditorium full of pride. This particular song

Sonia Friedman34:03

I just don't know how she does it. This is Amber Riley singing I Am Telling You.

Speaker 334:23

You're the best man I'll ever know. I mean, there's no way I could ever, ever go.

Speaker 334:35

I'm living without you. No, no, I'm not living.

Presenter34:41

That was Amber Riley with And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from the musical Dream Girls, composed by Henry Krieger and Tom I. It's time then, Sonia, for the books.

Presenter34:50

I give our castaways the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and what's your other book to accompany them going to be?

Sonia Friedman34:56

Mm.

Sonia Friedman34:58

Well, I've recently started um getting into poetry, so it's going to be the Oxford Book of English Verse. Right, I shall give you that.

Presenter35:07

You're allowed a luxury.

Sonia Friedman35:09

Oh, it will have to be the cello I'm going to use this time to learn again.

Presenter35:15

Yeah.

Sonia Friedman35:15

Uh

Presenter35:15

It's yours. You have to pick. This is going to be tricky. Just one track to save. Which one track are you going to pick?

Sonia Friedman35:18

Untrack.

Sonia Friedman35:21

It's my mum, of course, playing clairdol.

Presenter35:25

Good.

Sonia Friedman35:25

Yeah.

Presenter35:26

It's yours. Sonia Friedman, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Sonia Friedman35:30

Thank you.

Presenter36:16

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website, bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.

Speaker 236:48

This is the BBC.