CityLife

Interview: Connie Fisher

Connie (centre) in The Sound Of Music

CONNIE Fisher burst into the national consciousness as the winner of BBC1 talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

Then she became the well-reviewed lead – Maria, of course – in the hit West End revival of The Sound Of Music. But she’s a canny operator and, with the support of her mentor Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, stepped away from that clean-cut cliche of  “the nation’s Maria”.

She co-starred with Alistair MacGowan in a revival of the musical They’re Playing Our Song, appeared in several concerts (although her concert tour was cancelled), made a pair of well-received albums, and, crucially, made some TV appearances as a presenter and actress.

“It was Andrew who advised me to move on from The Sound Of Music because he wanted me to be known as Connie Fisher, not Maria – or, for that matter, Connie Francis,” she quips.

“He was crucial in my making the album and it was amazing getting personal feedback from the Lord.”

Now she’s back playing Maria on a national tour which brings her to the Palace from next week. Why the change of heart?

“It is a fabulous role and I always wanted to play it again,” she tells me, taking a brief break from looking at bridesmaids’ dresses with her mum for her upcoming wedding to banker Jeremy Reed.

“To be honest, I thought the show would run and run and run in the West End after I left and I’d be able to go back to it a few years down the line.

“Then it closed in London and they decided that it was going to go on tour. It was even going to open in Cardiff, near where my family live.

Enthusiastic

“That was going to happen anyway and I felt as if I couldn’t let it open without me.

“I wanted to nab the best places to play,” she laughs, “which are the ones on this tour, such as the Palace Theatre!”

She’s already got visits to a couple of other local theatres pencilled in, including a family trip to the Opera House panto.

Meanwhile, she’s still got a wedding to prepare for.

Even though it’s a story she’s told many times already, she still sounds touchingly enthusiastic when she recounts meeting the man of her dreams.

She was catching the London train from her family home in Wales and was, she recalls, on her mobile phone to her mum who was quizzing her about things like “‘Are you eating enough?’, ‘You shouldn’t be speaking, you should be resting your voice’, ‘Have you learnt your lines?’, ‘I worry about you, a girl on your own in London.’

“Just to shut her up, I said, ‘Mum, I want you to know I’ve met someone’ and hung up. Of course, I hadn’t – then.

“One of the guys sitting next to me said something like ‘bad day? Mum hassling you?’ So we had a little conversation but I wasn’t really engaging, because I thought ‘the last thing I need is some sleazy guy chatting me up.’

“Then I looked round at him and thought, ‘Wow, he’s the most gorgeous man ever!’ He asked me what I did and I said I was an actress and singer.

“He said, ‘That’s a tough business.’ I told him I was opening in a new show that week, thinking he might come. I dropped so many hints. But he clearly didn’t recognise me and he didn’t ask my name.”

'Believer in fate'

Then her train came in but, to Connie’s dismay, “he stayed on the platform. He had an off-peak ticket which wasn’t valid for my train.

“I toyed with the idea of writing my number in lipstick on the carriage window as we pulled away. Then I thought ‘He’s probably not in the least bit interested in me.’

“But I couldn’t stop thinking about him. On opening night I told everyone in the dressing room about him. I cast him as this superhero, ‘Train Man’. I felt we had a connection. It was weird.

“So when this massive bunch of flowers arrived for me on the opening night of They’re Playing Our Song, I was hoping it was from Train Man.

“Then I read the note and it said, ‘Dear Connie, Break a leg. Hope all goes well tonight, Love Andrew Lloyd Webber.’”

Eventually, though, Connie had a phone call from friend Bryn Terfel, the Welsh opera singer, saying a friend of a friend had bumped into her on a station platform and wanted to take her for a drink.

It turned out Jeremy had described the “lovely girl” he’d met to a work colleague, who – thinking the description rang a bell – located a photo of Connie on his BlackBerry. Jeremy discovered that Connie had sung with Terfel, contacted the, fortuitously mutual, friend – and now wedding bells are ringing.

“I’m a great believer in fate, in cosmic ordering. I’ve been very lucky so I’ve every reason to believe in it,” she adds.

The Sound Of Music is at the Palace Theatre from December 15, 2009 until January 16, 2010.