She played the role of Mother in the West End production of Ragtime at the Piccadilly Theatre starting in March 2003,[9] winning the 2004 Olivier Award, Best Actress in a Musical.
As previews for The Woman in White started for the Broadway production, she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and left the show to have surgery to have the lump removed.
(Friedman had planned a six-week absence for further treatment, with Judy Kuhn to be her replacement,[12] but remained for the duration of the run once the closing was announced.)
Producer!, the concert celebrating the works of Sir Cameron Mackintosh, in which she sang "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "Broadway Baby," and "How Many Tears?"
Similarly, she participated in Sondheim Tonight live at London's Barbican Centre, singing "Losing My Mind" (from Follies) and "More" (from the film Dick Tracy).
[citation needed] In 2010, Friedman appeared as a soloist in the BBC Proms tribute to Stephen Sondheim at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
In October 2014, Friedman joined the cast of EastEnders as Elaine Peacock, the mother of established character Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).
Having previously appeared as an actor in a 1992 production of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, in 2012 she directed a revival of the musical, which started at the Menier Chocolate Factory and transferred to the West End at the Harold Pinter Theatre in April to July 2013.
[16] This production of Merrily We Roll Along subsequently ran at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Massachusetts starting in September 2017, directed by Friedman.