Variety reports that Friedman will produce Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter in London in spring 2007. The production will mark the first time the Pinter play has been seen in the West End in four decades. Marc Camoletti's Boeing-Boeing, the industry paper says, will play London's Comedy Theatre with an official opening Feb. 15, 2007. Matthew Warchus will direct the farce with designs by Roger Howell. Roger Allam will head the cast as an architect who is having affairs with three "air-hostesses" with Tony Award winner Frances de la Tour as the long-suffering maid.
"Boeing-Boeing really is very funny," Friedman tells Variety, "and I think we're at a point now where we can stage plays from an era [Boeing was written in 1961] that was politically incorrect, so long as we're knowing about it. And remember, the women in the play are not being exploited: They're enjoying themselves tremendously."
Friedman will also bring Donkey's Years to New York. No dates have been announced for the Broadway bow of the Michael Frayn student reunion farce, which recently played London's Comedy Theatre. The play, which won an Olivier Award with its first outing in 1976, is set in a university college to which six students have returned for a reunion dinner. Finding themselves locked in the building overnight, the graduates relive their youth, reviving past friendships and feuds.