How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria winner, Connie Fisher, is rejoining the Sound Of Music stage show and taking it on a national tour.

The former call centre worker will open with the musical at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre next August.

Fisher said: “It’s nice to be coming home to start the tour so I’m really excited about that.”

“I’ve learnt so much (in the last two years),” Fisher said.

“I’ve had a different experience of musical styles and I’m much more confident on stage.”

Since leaving the musical in 2007 Connie has recorded an album and will soon appear in ITV drama Caught in a Trap.

Watch Sound Of Music star, Connie Fisher on Loose Women this week talking about Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Awards ceremonies, her plans for the future and more more more. It kind of reminds me why I voted for her so many times!!

The knives certainly seem to be out for Connie Fisher this week as people jump on the bandwagon to declare her career is as good as over.

Connie who finished her run in The Sound Of Music last night, to be replaced by another TV star, has no immediate plans for another show. In fact her upcoming tour has been cancelled amidst rumours of poor ticket sales.

Some are claiming that she was never fit for the West End stage, and that there are many more veteran performers out there who had much more charisma and stage presence, while Andre Ptaszynski, the CEO of the Really Useful Group, who was organising Connie’s tour told The Daily Mail:

“I think it is a mean take to say she is not as popular as she seemed to be …

“We decided to do the concert tour around Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 60th birthday and we got the time of it wrong.

“We were trying to push her into 2,000-seat arenas 18 months after she won the competition.

“We are postponing it until the autumn, after her second album. We were overoptimistic. It is not her fault.

“She is a tremendous star and has a very bright future in musical theatre.”

So what do you think? Would you pay to see Connie sing live, or do you think she is on her way to the land of obscurity along with so many other reality TV stars? As always, leave your comments below.

After getting voted off the BBC’s ‘How Do You Solve A problem Like Maria’, Aoife Mulholland assumed she would never get to play Maria on the West End. little did she know that a few months later she would be asked to share the role with the winner of the show, Connie Fisher.

Spekaing to The Daily Mail Aoife said:

“I got this call out of the blue six weeks ago, asking me to come in because Andrew Lloyd Webber wanted to see me again,” said the singer from Galway.

“A couple of days after that they told me I’d got the part. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Since that call she has been combining two roles, one as Roxie in Chicago and the other as Maria in The Sound Of Music.

“Going back from Roxie to Maria has been tough — for the first week I was rehearsing a nun by day and performing a murderer by night.”

Grease Is The Word will launch on ITV this week and the hunt will begin for the West End’s new Sandy and Danny.

At the launch party for the show in London last night, it was revealed that the winners of the show will be contracted to perform in eight shows per week despite the recent injury that Connie Fisher sustained while performing the same amount.

Connie won the BBC’s ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’ last year and has subsequently been playing Maria in the West End Sound Of Music stage show. She had to pull out of a number of shows earlier this year and is currently performing with the aid of a backing track due after damaging her vocal chords. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed that he feels responsible for Connie’s illness as she insisted on performing eight shows per week, when he should have insisted on six.

David Ian, judge on Grease Is The Word and producer of Sound Of Music claims that Connie’s injury was sustained due to her singing while ill with a cold. He assures us that eight shows a week, while playing Sandy and Danny is the absilute norm.

He said: “Danny and Sandy will be contracted to do eight shows a week, which is absolutely the West End norm. It’s not always normal for certain roles but I’ve always contracted Danny’s and Sandy’s to do eight shows a week and subject to them being fit, healthy and well, they’ll be on stage for eight shows a week.

“Maria in The Sound of Music is a huge thing and Connie would be the first to admit that the mistake she made was to sing through a cold. Maria has considerably more to do than Danny and Sandy. Grease is very much an ensemble piece.”

There have been some damning articles on the internet over the last few days accusing Connie Fisher, winner of the BBC’s hit show, ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’, of miming during her recent Sound Of Music shows.

The articles all stemmed from a report in the Daily Mail saying that due to recent throat problems, Connie has been singing along to a backing track and almost miming high notes in order to save her voice.

I personally can’t see the problem. Connie obviously isn’t medically able to sing alone at the minute, but doesn’t want to drop out of the show while her career is still in it’s infancy. It’s not as if she can’t sing, we all know she can. She is certainly no Milli Vanilli! I hope the tabloids see fit to give the girl a break, and let her recover at her own pace, she’ll be back on par in no time.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is sending winner of BBC’s ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’, to a top doctor for a crucial throat operation.

Connie Fisher sustained damage to her throat after performing Her role of Maria in The Sound Of Music with a heavy cold.

Since winning BBC’s ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’ last year Connie Fisher has had a stream of good luck that most of us can only dream about.

However this week she suffered her first setback when she was advised to take at least a week off the West End Sound Of Music show due to illness.

Here’s hoping shes back to her normal self next week…..