Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Theatre producer with eight shows in the West End and four on Broadway, known for artistic flair and commercial nous.
On the island
Eight records
This 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. He played me this piece of music as an example of what the emotion at the centre of the play is going to be.
Clair de luneFavourite
We are going to hear my mum playing a Debussy piece when I was a little girl. I would wake up and hear her practising. And 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.
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043: II. Largo ma non tanto
Leonard Friedman and Richard Friedman
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. And my brother joined my father's orchestra. And this is them together in the late eighties performing the second movement of the Bach double.
This is my sister, Maria Friedman, and I am so moved by literally everything she ever performs. This song is Son Time. Son Time takes me to places no other musical theatre composer takes me. 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.
Mark Umbers, Damien Humbley, Jenna Russell
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.
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.
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 me singing a song from Fiddler on the roof.
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
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 I just don't know how she does it. This is Amber Riley singing I Am Telling You.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:36When and where do the ideas come, and how do you capture them when they do come?
Usually it's about how I'm feeling. 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. 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.
Presenter asks
4:34What's been your biggest stinker?
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.
Presenter asks
6:13What was your first production?
Very, very first thing I produced was Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Book of English Verse
Well, I've recently started um getting into poetry, so it's going to be the Oxford Book of English Verse.
Presenter asks
12:04Did you ever have it out with your father? Did you ever have the big conversation?
No, no. Um he died in ninety four and the day or two before he died I had an urge, a need to see him. And he happily had supper with me, and at the end of the supper, He just turned to me and he said, Sonora, I'm very proud of you. Those were my the last words he ever said to me. And he never said I love you to me, but he did say I'm proud of you.
Presenter asks
21:23How did you get on with Harold Pinter?
I absolutely loved him. One of the very, very first jobs I did at the National was to be deputy stage manager for a new play that Harold Pinter had written called Mountain Language. And, you know, only two years before I'd been studying him, and suddenly I'm sitting next to him in a room. But there was an extraordinary moment when He just turned to me and he said uh Sonia. 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.
Presenter asks
27:18What impact has your career had on your private life?
Well, um, I've never had a family, not a conventional one. you know, in my thirties. As it happens, I d I did meet somebody and 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. 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.
“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.”
“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. So, you know, I I've I've never had abandonment issues, but I've certainly um rejection.”
“Those were my the last words he ever said to me. And he never said I love you to me, but he did say I'm proud of you.”
“I will never understand what it will be like to have a dad. And so I'm always looking for stories that will might help me understand.”