Tony Award winners Sonia Friedman and Hugh Jackman have announced the launch of “Together,” a new company dedicated to creating live theater that is intimate and accessible. Every production from the company will strive to offer audiences a chance to experience theater in a fresh and engaging way.
Working with director Ian Rickson, the company will stage short runs of fully rehearsed, full-length plays, along with readings, panel discussions and other events in the U.S., U.K. and beyond. The company’s focus will be on collaboration, ensemble, equal pay for actors and shared creative credit. By stripping fully rehearsed productions down to their essentials, with minimal design, the partnership aims to achieve what Friedman and Jackman say makes theater so compelling in the first place.
Performances from the company will be held in small venues, where established actors will perform just feet from the audience, creating an intimate, elemental experience and a heightened sense of community. The partnership aims to keep its productions affordable for a large proportion of the venue and open to as many theatergoers as possible.
“With director Ian Rickson we wanted to create a company where actors, writers and directors could experiment, explore and take risks, away from the pressures that are often associated with the commercial theater world,” said Friedman and Jackman in a joint statement. “‘Together’ is about going back to basics, rediscovering the simple, thrilling essence of live performance. At the same time, this isn’t about our stepping away from Broadway or the West End — it’s about supporting and coexisting alongside them. We have always been drawn to theater because of its raw energy — the excitement of a first reading, the joy of stepping into an unexpected role, that sense of a shared experience. With Ian, this company is our way of sharing those moments with audiences, making them part of our process. We also want to embrace flexibility — whether that’s through varied performance schedules during the week or staging plays in repertoire, allowing productions and ideas to evolve in a spontaneous and organic way. By removing some of the usual constraints, we hope to create a space where the productions can feel fresh, alive and ever-changing.”
On Broadway, Friedman, Jackman and Rickson collaborated on Jez Butterworth’s 2014 drama “The River,” in which Friedman’s company Sonia Friedman Productions was a lead producer, Jackman was the play’s star and Rickson the director.
Friedman is a multiple Tony-winning producer represented on Broadway this season by “The Hills of California,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Eureka Day,” “All In: Comedy About Love,” “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and “Dead Outlaw.”
In addition to “The River,” Jackman has been seen on Broadway in “The Music Man,” “Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway,” “A Steady Rain” and “The Boy From Oz,” the latter for which he won the 2004 Tony as Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
Rickson’s other Broadway credits include “The Seagull” and Butterworth’s “Jerusalem” — both produced by Sonia Friedman Productions — as well as “The Weir” and “Hedda Gabler.”
Further details and production information for the company will be announced.
