Moving on from Maria – Connie Fisher’s latest challenge

Connie Fisher is a tricky one to pin down for a conversation.

It’s not just because she’s touring the country with the show Wonderful Town, or because since coming to prominence has appeared to be charm itself – and therefore highly in demand for interviews – but because her voice is resolutely to be used for the benefit of the fans who go to see her do what she does best: perform on stage.

“I live like a nun. Excessive talking fatigues my voice very quickly, so I have to be very careful. I don’t want to compromise my performance, so I don’t really go to bars or go out or anything like that. It’s worth the compromise because I want to be able to be at my best when it comes to performing,” she says.

So to catch her on a day when she has two performances and find her up for a chat seems fortunate. It turns out that, while she is concerned to take care of her voice, Connie can’t help herself. She talks ten-to-the-dozen and has plenty to say about plenty of subjects.

At the moment she is starring as Ruth Sherwood in the Leonard Bernstein musical. For the woman who became famous when she won How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? taking on the part is an important step in her career.

The role of Ruth, the idealistic Ohio girl who goes to New York to become a writer, was played in the West End by Maureen Lipman.

“I couldn’t play Maria for the rest of my life. I played the role for three years night in and out, over a five year period, but I had to move on and do something else – and show people that I could do something else,” she says.“This is a new chapter and a new character and it gives me the chance to show that I’m a lot more than a one-trick pony.”

Connie’s reviews for Wonderful Town so far have been impressive and, she admits, winning over the critics is important to her. She says her fans, who have travelled from as far away as Germany, Malta and even Ohio, remain important, but the critical response is equally so.

When, in 2006, she won the television show presided over by Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber, the brickbats were flying from within the industry. The reason was that Connie, it was much publicised, won the lead role in The Sound of Music straight from the ‘shopfloor’ of a telesales company.

“Yes, I was working in telesales when I auditioned for the show, but what never gets brought up is the fact that I was doing that job to pay the £28,000 student debt I had from training at drama school,” she says.

“I graduated with a first class honours degree, I trained at Mountview, I played character roles in my graduation shows. This is what I was trained to do, but that doesn’t make as good a story as a girl from a telesales company walking on to the stage.”

Wonderful Town marks Connie’s return to the stage following throat surgery for a rare condition which means she had holes in her vocal cords. It also sees her taking on a tricky role.

“It’s not as well known as some of Bernstein’s other work, like West Side Story, but it’s a show where the audience will leave humming the songs,” she says.

“It’s also real family entertainment, so it’s the sort of thing that people who came to see me in The Sound of Music will be able to come and see and enjoy too.”