JOB's Peter Friedman on Stage and Screen
Peter Friedman is back on Broadway in JOB, following the play's two sold-out runs Off-Broadway.
By: Stephi Wild Aug. 05, 2024
Peter Friedman is back on Broadway in JOB, following the play's two sold-out runs Off-Broadway. JOB began performances on Monday, July 15 and officially opened on Tuesday, July 30 at the Hayes Theater for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 29.
Friedman made his Broadway debut in 1972, and has since gone on to appear on the stage and screen in many notable roles. To celebrate his return to the Broadway stage, we're taking a look back on some of Friedman's career highlights!
On Stage
The Great God Brown
Peter Friedman made his Broadway debut in The Great God Brown, a drama in four acts and a prologue by Eugene O’Neill. The play was first produced and published in 1926.
Friedman played the role of Committeeman in a production at the Lyceum Theatre, which ran December 10, 1972 - January 14, 1973. Friedman returned to the show many decades later in an off-Broadway revival at Playwrights Horizons in 2013, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.
The Visit
Another notable production that Friedman starred in was the original cast of The Visit.
The Visit tells the story of a wealthy woman who returns to her debt-ridden hometown and offers a sum greater than they have ever imagined to help out. But there is a condition: She wants the life of a villager who years ago had caused her to be expelled from town in disgrace.
Frieman starred in the original Broadway production in 1973, in the role of Carpenter, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The production ran from November 25, 1973 - February 16, 1974.
The Heidi Chronicles
Friedman appeared in both the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of The Heidi Chronicles in 1988 and 1989, in the role of Scoop Rosenbaum. For this role, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
The plot of the play follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later.
Ragtime
Friedman earned his first Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Tateh in the 1998 production of Ragtime, having also played the role in the musical's pre-Broadway try-out. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for this role.
Ragtime is a musical with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by E.L. Doctorow.
Set in the early 20th century, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlemmusician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.
Twelve Angry Men
Friedman played Juror Number 10 in the Roundabout Theatre Company Broadway premiere of Twelve Angry Men in 2004. The production ran from October 2004 to March 2005 at the American Airlines Theatre.
Twelve Angry Men is a play by Reginald Rose, adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title. Staged first in San Francisco in 1955, the Broadway debut came 50 years after CBS aired the play.
Hamlet
In 2017, Friedman portrayed Polonius in the Public Theatre's production of Hamlet starring Oscar Isaac and Keegan-Michael Key.
Directed by Tony Award winner Sam Gold, Hamlet opened on July 13, 2017, and ran through September 3 in the Anspacher Theater.
The cast also included Roberta Colindrez (Rosencrantz); Ritchie Coster (Claudius); Peter Friedman (Polonius); Oscar Isaac (Hamlet); Keegan-Michael Key (Horatio); Gayle Rankin (Ophelia); Matthew Saldivar (Guildenstern); Charlayne Woodard (Gertrude); and Anatol Yusef (Laertes).
Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg
The Treasurer
In 2017, the same year as Hamlet, Friedman appeared Off-Broadway in the world premiere of The Treasurer at Playwrights Horizons. For his role as The Son, he was nominated for a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor.
The play is by Max Posner and was directed by three-time Lortel Award winner David Cromer. The cast included Marinda Anderson, Pun Bandhu, and Tony Award winner and Olivier Award nominee Deanna Dunagan.
Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski
JOB
This brings us to Friedman's current role, as Loyd in JOB.
JOB is a play written by Max Wolf Friedlich. The original production started on September 6, 2023, at the Soho Playhouse. The production was nominated for the John Gassner Award for Best New Play at the Outer Critics Circle Awards.
JOB revolves around a young woman Jane (Sydney Lemmon) with her therapist Loyd (Peter Friedman).
The Broadway production will run at the Helen Hayes Theatre from July 15 through September 29.
.jpg "JOB's Peter Friedman on Stage and Screen")
Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid
Friedman's other Broadway credits include Don Juan (1972), Chemin De Fer (1973), Holiday (1973), Love For Love (1974), The Rules of the Game (1974), Execution of Justive (1986), and The Tenth Man (1989).
On Screen
Succession
Friedman's most notable role of his career thus far is arguably in the hit television series Succession. From 2018 to 2023, he played the role of Frank Vernon in the series. For this role, he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series along with the cast in 2022 and 2023.
Learn more about other Succession stars who have ties to the stage here.
Brooklyn Bridge
One of Friedman's earliest recurring television roles was as George Silver in Brooklyn Bridge, a role he played from 1991–1993.
Brooklyn Bridge is an American sitcom television series which aired on CBS, and follows a Jewish American family living in Brooklyn in the mid-1950s.
The show won a Golden Globe for Best Television Comedy or Musical and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1992.
The Path
Another long-recurring television role of Friedman's was on the Hulu series The Path. Friedman portrayed Hank Armstrong in the series from 2016 to 2018.
The Path was created by Jessica Goldberg, and starred Aaron Paul, Michelle Monaghan, and Hugh Dancy. The show portrays members of a fictional religion known as Meyerism. There were a total of three seasons, after which Hulu did not renew the show.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
In 2023, Friedman took a recurring role as George Toledano, producer of The Gordon Ford Show, in the final season of the Amazon Prime Video comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on March 17, 2017. It takes place mainly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and stars Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel: a New York housewife who discovers she has a talent for stand-up comedy and pursues a career in this field. It also stars Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, Jane Lynch, and Luke Kirby. The fifth and final season concluded in May 2023.
Friedman is also known for his film roles in Safe (1995), The Savages (2007), I'm Not There (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Side Effects (2013), and She Said (2022), among many more. He has made numerous guest appearances in such series as Miami Vice, NYPD Blue, Without a Trace, and Ghost Whisperer.
Videos