Connie Fisher

Published Monday 24 December 2007 at 14:05 by Nuala Calvi

The Sound of Music’s leading lady talks to Nuala Calvi about the pressure of proving herself to the critics, the industry and the public, being the guinea pig of TV talent search casting and keeping her eyes open for more work

When Connie Fisher won TV talent show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, she vowed to repay the hundreds of thousands of people who voted for her by making “every night opening night” in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium.

Fifteen months have passed since the then 23-year-old telesales girl from Pembrokeshire won the chance to play Maria in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s £4 million West End production, and it is more than a year since she first faced her critics from the theatre’s hallowed stage.

In that time, the gawky kid who charmed TV viewers has grown into a true star. She occupies her spacious dressing room - once home to Elaine Paige, Jason Donovan and Phillip Schofield - as if she were born to be there, trilling away and exercising her vocal cords.

Over the past 12 months Fisher’s Maria has, she says, evolved as she has grown more confident. And, after more than 350 performances to almost a million people, there can no longer be any doubt that the ‘girl off the telly’ has proved herself.

With a recent cast change, she no longer feels like one of the “newbies”, as she puts it.

Nevertheless, Fisher remains keenly aware of her pledge to the public who helped her escape 18 months of unemployment as a struggling performer.

“I am conscious that people have voted for me and paid to see me, so I really don’t want to disappoint them,” she says. “For me, it’s a joy to have a job, and to enjoy your job - it’s far better than telesales.”

True to her word, Fisher still stands outside the stage door signing autographs and posing for fans’ pictures night after night - although the crowds of hundreds have now dwindled to a respectable two dozen.

And, despite having had to sing about whiskers on kittens more times than is perhaps safe for one’s sanity, her excitement at playing the part she dreamt about from the age of six does not seem to have waned.

“The great thing about The Sound of Music is it’s so well written you can find new things in it every night,” she explains.

Nevertheless, there have been some significant highs and lows for the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts graduate since she beat thousands of girls to the part of Maria.

“Instantly when I won it was, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m elated!’,” she recalls. “And then in that second it was like a ton of weights were on my shoulders - the pressure of actually proving the critics wrong.”

Joining rehearsals with seasoned musical theatre professionals, Fisher was conscious that she only had a single stint in panto under her belt since drama school and that there was unease in the industry over the way she was chosen for the role.

“I was worried how the cast would react,” she remembers. “I certainly didn’t have a leading lady’s confidence at that point.”

Then, just days before open-ing night, her leading man was sacked. In typical Fisher style, when the producers rang her to break the news, she was convinced she was getting the boot.

Despite her anxiety, Fisher’s glowing reviews proved the sceptics wrong. As one critic put it, her “fluttery wonder” at being where she was perfectly matched that of Maria’s at being thrust into the world of the Von Trapps.

“[Producer] David Ian came into my dressing room the morning after and said, ‘Never in all my time with Andrew have we had champagne and croissants for breakfast after an opening night!’,” Fisher laughs.

An award from the Critics’ Circle followed, helping to end what she calls her “obsession” with proving herself.

But the media circus continued, first with stories about her having an affair with a stage hand behind her long-term boyfriend’s back - which she strongly denies - and then with gloating coverage of her suffering a burst blood vessel in her throat and being forced to take time off from the show in March.

It was widely believed that Fisher’s insistence on doing eight performances a week and singing through a cold was to blame. She remains defensive.

“I don’t think it was necessarily the eight shows a week that was the problem, it was the eight shows a week and publicity, and not having any time off before I went into The Sound of Music,” she explains.

“If you imagine the pressures of going on live television every week and then getting thrown into rehearsals with a whole new life, and dealing with that new life and the press and the buzz of it all - your body has to come down at some point.”

Despite worries she would never sing again, just a fortnight later Fisher made the brave decision to return to the stage, against the advice of doctors.

When she did, she discovered that Maria runner-up Aoife Mulholland would be taking over her role twice a week. Ask her whether this was difficult to bear, and the defences go up again.

It’s an arrangement that still endures today, although Fisher now has a strict diet and warm-up regime to prevent future illness and has only been sick twice in the last eight months.

“I eat vitamins more than I eat chocolate now,” she laughs, “And when I give my guinea pig some cabbage, I also eat some myself.”

Meanwhile, Maria has continued to open doors. Fisher has released an album, Favourite Things, headlined at the Faenol Festival with Ruthie Henshall and Michael Ball, and sung at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium.

On Christmas Day, she and Lee Mead, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest TV-made star, will perform in a BBC1 entertainment special together.

Fisher has been on hand to offer the Any Dream Will Do winner advice on the pressures of post-reality TV life.

“His agent and my agent talk a lot, because I’m kind of the guinea pig, I’m kind of going on a journey where it’s all unknown,” she says.

“It’s like Andrew [Lloyd Webber] has created a family, he’s got a son and a daughter now. Andrew’s a very supportive man and if we ever need guidance, he’ll always be there. He created the monster, and now he’s looking after us.”

These days, Fisher regularly dines at the Lloyd Webber house, although she says she still has to pinch herself whenever he calls.

She has also added a few famous faces to her circle of friends, such as David Walliams, and she and her boyfriend have moved from a flat in Sydenham to a house in north London.

But Fisher isn’t someone who can be found frequenting celebrity haunts. “I’m not a party animal at all, never have been,” she says. “I just have a passion for what I do and I like doing it.”

Her main focus, with the end of her run in The Sound of Music looming in February, is on proving herself in other ways.

She has begun taking screen acting lessons ahead of her TV drama debut in Caught in a Trap - a one-off for ITV about a girl who steals from parking meters to fund an addiction to Elvis memorabilia - and wants to try her hand at film.

“I’m keen to learn new crafts and I have so much to learn. I’m 24, I’m fresh out of college in my eyes and I’m like a sponge - I want to absorb everyone’s knowledge,” she says.

“If you could get the director of the National, the Chocolate Factory and the RSC to call me, that would be great. Oh, and Steven Spielberg…”