Maria Friedman on having the adventure of a lifetime in 'Kimberly Akimbo'

West End legend Maria Friedman is going back to her teenage self to portray the title role in the poignant musical Kimberly Akimbo.

Summary

• Maria Friedman is starring in the title role in Kimberly Akimbo
• She has been nominated for seven Olivier Awards
• Performances begin at Hampstead Theatre on 28 August

In theatrical circles, the word ‘legend’ is overused. But actor and director Maria Friedman certainly deserves the accolade. She is a seven-time Olivier Award nominee, winning three times for acting and has scooped a litany of other theatrical accolades.

It’s fair to say that the 2024 Tony Awards were also a huge success for Friedman. Having already won two Oliviers, her revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along was nominated for an incredible seven Tonys, taking home four. There was only one show that had topped that total recently, with eight nominations and five wins — Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s unique musical, Kimberly Akimbo.

Friedman loved the concept, but didn’t consider that one day she might be in the show herself. “I never thought it would come my way,” she says earnestly. Now she is preparing to take on the title role in the European premiere at Hampstead Theatre.

She was so busy with directing commitments her agent didn’t think she would be interested, but she accepted the part “without missing a beat.”

As a child, Friedman never seemed destined for the theatre. Her parents were classical musicians and “I went to the theatre about five times in the whole of my childhood.” Her aim was to be a cellist, but “I wasn’t good enough to be a soloist — that’s practice every day of your life […] and I’m a bit more free-spirited than that."

She joined a close harmony singing group, “not as a profession, but as something to stop me being a receptionist,” she wryly smiles. She sang her way around Europe with the group and thought, “this is something I’d love to do.”

She started auditioning for the stage, getting her first job in Oklahoma! where she had “half a line.” As an understudy covering three of the principal roles, the show “was my drama school,” she explains. “It was halcyon days and I still have friends from that show […] I was so lucky that was my first job.”

Then came a gala at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, featuring theatrical luminaries such as Angela Lansbury and Julia McKenzie. Friedman was a replacement, given the song “Broadway Baby” from Follies, which she had never heard, let alone sung. When she walked onto the stage in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt, there was an audible moan from the audience, who had been expecting Elaine Stritch. She was heckled, but the experience was the making of her.

“It brought me something that I’ve kept for the rest of my life. I wanted to run, but instead I went into the work, and it’s what’s kept me safe forever.” It clearly worked, as the crowd went berserk at her version of the song. A certain Stephen Sondheim happened to be in the audience and there began a close professional relationship that lasted 40 years.

Unsurprisingly, she talks with great emotion about Sondheim’s musicals. “They’re exacting, they’re funny, they’re warm, they’re brilliant, they’re full of humanity and love.”

"Everything he writes is about love — I’m obsessed with that as a theme in everything I do. Whether you have it or don’t have it, or look for it, or fuck it up — love seems to be central. Love is how I want to operate in the world. And he lets me do that.”

She calls musical theatre “the deepest collaborative form,” and Kimberly Akimbo will mark the first time Friedman has worked with director Michael Longhurst, who she calls “fantastic.” The show’s musical director, Nigel Lilley, is also someone she has always wanted to work with. Even before official rehearsals had started, she was already working with Lilley on what she calls ‘prep rehearsals’. “I wanted to get ahead on learning my lines and singing it in my voice.” A method she always practises.

Friedman is candid that the role is challenging. “In terms of technique, it requires a lot. They’ve written a role for a young person. So, I have to take that on. Which is huge.”

It’s clear that she already feels an affinity with the character of a 16-year-old girl with a genetic condition that makes her age four times faster than everyone else. “She’s coming to the end of her life, and I’m definitely in the last part [of my life], not the beginning,” she explains. “My dreams haven’t changed. We don’t change, just because your body gets a bit tired — I don’t feel any different.”

Friedman sees a lot of herself in the character. “You see yourself in every role you play. You can’t possibly play anything unless you identify with it,” she stresses. “You’re looking for how you connect, not how you’re different […]. I think you play it not like somebody who’s ill, but somebody who wants to live, like I do. I just play it like me.”

Kimberly wants to experience as much as she can before her time runs out and Friedman talks with relish about tackling the role. “It’s about hope, it’s about courage, it’s about honesty, it’s about saying it as it is.” Friedman pauses. “Kimberly learns to keep fighting and keep trying, and keep dreaming, and keep hoping, and keep living. So, that’s Kimberly — and she’s funny as fuck.”

Friedman is delighted to get her teeth into such a substantial role as an older female actor. When she first saw the show, she thought “how interesting, how wonderful, that Jeanine and David had written a proper role for an older woman.” She is frank about ageism and sexism in the industry. “You fall off a cliff as a musical theatre performer at 45, there’s just nothing there,” she sighs, with clear frustration. “And in musicals, the older parts, apart from Gypsy, I’ve done them all. And I’m now too old for that [role].” However, she does have a solution. “I’ll just do it in concert,” she comments.

For all the incredible roles Friedman has played, it’s clear that she feels very strongly about Kimberly. “As an actor, your duty is to be introspective with your character, and work hard at your own trajectory,” she says. She wants the message of the show to be clear: “to keep living, to keep dreaming, keep hoping. Recognise that it’s okay to be afraid, because that’s what life does to you. And we only have now, so make now count.”

Book Kimberly Akimbo tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the September 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Maria Friedman. (Photo by Genevieve Girling). Inset: in rehearsals with director Michael Longhurst and the cast. (Photos by Marc Brenner)