Hockey Musical Composer Dies Days Before Show Opens At Children's Theatre

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The composer of a new hockey musical at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis has died days before the show opens.

Michael Friedman, an Obie-winning composer and lyricist known for the musicals "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" and "Love's Labour's Lost," died Saturday of HIV/AIDS complications in New York, where he lived. He was 41.

Friedman wrote the music and lyrics for "The Abominables," a hockey-themed show that was commissioned by the Children's Theatre in 2011. The show opens Friday.

Children's Theatre artistic director Peter Brosius calls Friedman "an extraordinary artist and an incredible human being."

Friedman's best-known work is the rock musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" which imagines the seventh president as an emo rock star.

The Star Tribune reports Children's Theatre will dedicate the run of "Abominables" to Friedman.

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