Award-Winning Theater Composer Michael Friedman Dies of HIV/AIDS Related Complications

Michael Friedman, an Obie-winning composer and lyricist known for the musicals "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" and "Love's Labour's Lost," has died. He was 41.

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham said Friedman died Saturday of complications related to HIV/AIDS in New York.

Friedman's best-known work is the rock musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," which imagines the seventh President of the United States as an emo rock star.

First performed in 2008, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" opened on Broadway in September 2010 and closed in January 2011 after 120 performances.

Friedman was a co-founder of the Civilians theater company and artist-in-residence and director of Public Forum at the Public Theater.

Eustis said in a statement that Friedman was one of the most brilliant, multi-talented theater artists of our time.