In the last months of Stephen Sondheim’s life, Maria Friedman went to see him with a bunch of grapes and a bottle of vodka. The two of them were great friends – Friedman, an eight-time Olivier nominee, had starred in many of the composer’s musicals – and she thought it might cheer him up. But when she turned up, he told her that doctors had banned him from sugar and alcohol. Even in those moments, she says, he was “still really twinkly and laughy and naughty”. If you met him, it was clear that he was “somebody that mattered in a deep way”. She smiles. “I don’t know what I would have done without Stephen Sondheim.”
I meet Friedman at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where she’s in rehearsals for her new show Legacy. Part-concert, part-talk show, it sees Friedman and friends performing the music of famed composers Michel LeGrand, Marvin Hamlisch and, yes, Stephen Sondheim. Friedman has performed and directed at the Menier many times, and you can tell she feels comfortable here. Sat opposite me on a low sofa, she rarely breaks eye contact for a second, yet is incredibly warm and funny. At the end of our conversation, she tells me that she loves the knickers I’m wearing, which makes me slightly panic until I realise she means my jumper, which actually says “Kickers”.
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