- Michael Friedman (composer)
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Michael Friedman is an American composer and lyricist. He is a founding Associate Artist of The Civilians and an Artistic Associate at New York Theatre Workshop.[1] He received a 2007 Obie award for sustained excellence.[2] His musical Saved earned him a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Best Musical. His musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson opened on Broadway in October 2010.
Contents
Background
Friedman grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While growing up he was classically trained in cello and piano, but didn't write original work for theatre until he was 24. He attended Germantown Friends School, after which he studied history and literature at Harvard.[3] While at Harvard, Friedman thought of music, he volunteered to help a student written musical. He then took a music composition class taught[3] by Elizabeth Swados, who was a guest artist at Harvard, saw something she liked.[4]
In 1998, Swados hand picked Friedman to musically direct Andrei Şerban's version of Cymbeline at The Public Theater. Later in that same year, Friedman worked with Swados and Serban at American Repertory Theatre on Merchant of Venice.[4]
In 1999 he worked with Albert Innaurato and Christopher Durang at the ART for their production of The Idiots Karamazov. The composer for the show, Peter Golub, encouraged him to write his own music. In the same year, he interned at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and met future collaborators Stephen Cosson, Daniel Goldstein, Will Frears, and Nicholas Martin. Cosson needed a musical director in Williamstown for his production of The Time of Your Life. After he wrote his first songs for Frear's show A Servant of Two Masters, which debuted at the festival, Cosson formed The Civilians and Friedman began writing for their first show, Canard, Canard, Goose?.[4]
In 2004 the premiere of (I Am) Nobody's Lunch premiered at Performance Space 122, and it is thought to be the only musical that is about epistemology. The music in the show is also reminiscent of Kurt Weill.[4]
2007 saw the premiere of In the Bubble at the American Music Theatre Project, with collaboration by Rinne Groff and Joe Popp.[4][5]
Career
He wrote music and lyrics for Saved, In the Bubble, The Brand New Kid, God’s Ear, and The Blue Demon. His music has also been heard at the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage, SoHo Rep, Signature Theatre, Theater for a New Audience, and The Acting Company. Regionally, at Hartford Stage, Humana Festival, ART, Berkeley Rep, Dallas Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Portland Center Stage, and internationally at London’s Soho and Gate Theatres, and the Edinburgh Festival. He also wrote the shows The Essential Alice (with director Des McAnuff and writer Annie Weisman Macomber at La Jolla Playhouse), Post Office (with Melissa James Gibson at Center Theatre Group), The Great Immensity (with Steven Cosson at the Foundry Theatre), and Unknown Soldier (with Daniel Goldstein at Huntington Theatre Company).[4]
He was also the dramaturge for the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Kenny Leon.[6] Upcoming: Original music for the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, directed by Michael Greif .[7]
Film/TV work includes On Common Ground, Beloved, Emile Norman: By His Own Design, Floaters, and Affair Game.[8]
The Civilians
With The Civilians Friedman has been the composer and lyricist for the company’s Canard, Canard, Goose?, Gone Missing, [I Am] Nobody's Lunch, This Beautiful City, and co-authored Paris Commune.[9] Upcoming: Porn Musical
References
- ^ http://www.nytw.org/staff.asp
- ^ http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-05-15/theater/2006-2007-obie-award-winners/
- ^ a b Grathwohl, Casper (2007-03-11). "Composing for Shakespeare While Listening to Timberlake". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/theater/11grath.html.
- ^ a b c d e f Weisman, Wendy (2008). "Michael Friedman: musical ventriloquist; The highbrow and the lowbrow mix it up in the composer-lyricist's tuneful oeuvre". American Theatre (Theatre Communications Group) 25 (2): 54.
- ^ "World Premiere 'In the Bubble' Fourth New Musical for AMTP". Northwestern University. 2007-05-22. http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2007/05/theatre1.html. Retrieved 2009-05-18. "AMTP's newest musical was inspired by multiple “bubble boy” sources in pop culture, including the 1976 Emmy-nominated made-for-television movie “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” starring John Travolta; the 1987 Paul Simon song “The Boy in the Bubble”; a 1992 “Seinfeld” television episode; and Bandeira Entertainment's 2001 screen comedy “Bubble Boy,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, (and more potently, the protests surrounding the Gyllenhaal film)."
- ^ http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=13596
- ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/140607-Quinto-Borle-Wood-Weigert-Kazan-Heck-and-More-Will-Wrestle-With-Angels-in-America
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0295238/
- ^ http://thecivilians-artist.blogspot.com/2009/12/michael-friedman.html
External links
Categories:- American musical theatre composers
- American musical theatre lyricists
- Living people
- People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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