Friedman Received Outpatient Surgery; Return to Woman in White Expected Soon

By: Dec. 13, 2005
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The producers of The Woman in White have stated that Maria Friedman underwent exploratory surgery on Monday, December 12th as part of her treatment for stage 1 breast cancer.

"It was an outpatient procedure and she was never admitted to the hospital," they stated, contradicting previous reports that Friedman had been hospitalized. "Because her course of treatment is still being determined, the date of Maria's return to the production is not set; but it is hoped she will re-join the show as early as this weekend."

Friedman had played just three previews when she was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in late October and underwent surgery on November 3rd. She returned to the show on November 10th, with a doctor in the wings making sure everything went well, and the show opened as planned on November 17th.

While Friedman is out, her role will be performed by her understudy Lisa Brescia.

Friedman, who won acclaim for making her Broadway debut as Marian Holcombe in The Woman in White, is a three-time Olivier Award winner--for Ragtime, her one woman show Maria Friedman--By Special Arrangement and for her performance as Fosca in Passion. The winner of an Evening Standard Award for her portrayal of Liza Elliott in the Royal National Theatre's Lady in the Dark, Friedman was also nominated for playing Dot in Sunday in the Park with George and Roxie Hart in Chicago. Other West End credits include The Witches of Eastwick, The Break of Day, April in Paris and Merrily We Roll Along.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, The Woman in White is a gothic musical romance based on the Wilkie Collins novel. It features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel and a book by Charlotte Jones (Humble Boy). The Woman in White stars Maria Friedman and Michael Ball, and also features Jill Paice, Angela Christian, Adam Brazier, Walter Charles and Ron Bohmer.

The show is (according to production notes) about "a dashing young man, employed as the art tutor to two devoted sisters, (who) is stranded at a remote railway cutting. Out of the darkness looms a woman, a mysterious figure dressed in white, desperate to share a chilling secret. He and the sisters soon find themselves trapped in a web of betrayal and greed, the victims of a seemingly flawless crime. Together they will need all their resourcefulness and courage to outwit a hugely charismatic and ingenious villain. As the compelling plot twists and turns, low villainy vies with high romance in a world where nothing is as it first appears and where it is impossible to know who to trust." The show is produced by Boyett Ostar Productions, Nederlander Presentations Inc., Sonia Friedman Productions Ltd., The Really Useful White Company, Inc., Lawrence Horowitz/Jon Avnet, and Ralph Guild/Bill Rollnick.

For more information, visit www.womaninwhitethemusical.com.

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