These ‘Celebra Teas’ are normally held in the National’s Terrace cafe, but because of the building work going on they have had to move it to the foyer of the Olivier Stalls. This spoilt the event a little for me, because this time you had to have your tea, scones, jam and cream in the Olivier buffet and then move to the foyer of the Olivier stalls for the talk with Maria Friedman. This somewhat took the magic and atmosphere off the event. Normally, when it is held in the Terrace cafe you could eat your scones and drink your tea whilst listing to the featured guest. However, having got over this hardship! The talk with Maria Friedman was delightful.

Maria has this wonderful feel good factor about her, she looks and feels confident and full of energy. I noticed this when she just walked on to the platform, before she even said a word! She comes across as a very nice person, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, and she also has this very cute smile coupled with a charming personality.

Maria spoke of how she came to be working in the theatre. She told us how she was not very good at school and left with no qualifications. Maria had around 18 different jobs in her first few years after leaving school, with the word ‘sacked’ featuring quite a lot! Then one day she saw an advertisement for a singer in a group. She applied and got the job and ending up touring Europe in a lot of ‘not so very nice’ venues. Later she got the part of a chorus girl in ‘Oklahoma’ at the Palace theatre and then rose through the ranks to her present position of commanding leading lady .

Maria’s favourite composer is Stephen Sondheim and her favourite actress is Judi Dench. She explained how Sondheim is a very emotional man, who cries very easily when things move him. She said Sondheim cried throughout Maria’s performance of Liza Elliott in ‘Lady In the Dark’.

She also goes on to say she had to fight to convince people that she was right for the part of Fosca in ‘Passion’. She said, many people didn’t think the part would be right for her, but she was certain it was and she persuaded the powers that be to give her the role.

Maria was asked what her relationship was like with Michael Ball, who starred opposite her in ‘Passion’. She replied in such a way that may suggest that they don’t really get on. She says how differently she sees life compared to Michael, but she said although we are very different people, opposites, we do work well together because we respect each others talent.

One of the audience asked her if she knew why it had taken 56 years for ‘Lady In the Dark’ to get produced in London. She explained that the estates of Gershwin etc are very protective of their works and won’t let the work be performed unless it is done exactly as the author had wanted it performed. As ‘Lady In The Dark’ was originally written for a large cast, big scenery and large orchestra, it was too expensive to put the show on. However, after a lot of persuading they eventually allowed this production to be scaled down. She also said, even with this scaled down version, these musicals still lose money and if it was not for theatres like the National, then these shows would probably never be seen.

Maria said she is now taking a break from theatre for a few months to spend time with her family and friends. She goes on to say she has no future theatre productions planned at the moment, except for the odd concert performance. She is presently in the middle of recording the cast album for ‘Lady In The Dark and had no idea when the album would be released.

There were many more questions and interesting stories, too numerous to mention here. The audience of around 150 (which is capacity) really enjoyed the chat along with myself. These ‘Celebri Teas’ are a joy and I highly recommend them, however places are very limited.

The next Celebri Teas are Clarke Peters 8th Aug, Imelda Staunton 15th Aug (this is sold out, but I’ll be there!) Judi Dench 22nd Aug (Sold Out), and lastly Clive Rowe 29th Aug.

(Darren Dalglish)