Obie Award-winner Michael Friedman ’97 will discuss his work in musical theater, notably in collaboration with the group The Civilians as well as his Broadway debut in 2010 as a composer/lyricist for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” hailed by Ben Brantley of the New York Times as “the most entertaining and most perceptive political theater of the season.” Friedman will answer audience questions, and perform several compositions.
Michael Friedman wrote the music and lyrics to “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” which played at New York’s Public Theater and on Broadway. As an Associate Artist with the acclaimed theater company The Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for “Canard Canard Goose,” “Gone Missing,” “Nobody's Lunch,” “This Beautiful City,” “In the Footprint,” and “The Great Immensity,” and co-created the group’s 2012 TED Talk. Other works include “Saved” and “The Brand New Kid.” With Steve Cosson, he is the co-author of “Paris Commune,” which was recently presented in Boston by Arts Emerson at the Paramount Theatre before an engagement at the BAM Next Wave Festival in New York.
Upcoming projects include an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s “The Fortress of Solitude” with Itamar Moses; a new show about Dance Marathons with Benjamin Millepied; a commission on American history from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost”; and “Pretty Filthy,” a musical about the adult film industry with Bess Wohl and The Civilians. He was the dramaturg for the recent Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” and has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a Meet The Composer Fellow, and a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute. An evening of his songs was featured in Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, and he received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement.
