Kara Tointon will make her musical debut as governess Maria Rainer in ITV’s £2 million broadcast of The Sound Of Music.
She’ll be leading an all-star cast as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless tale is performed live on TV in the UK for the first time – and there’s no contingency plan should the risky show go wrong.
Executive producer Fiona Clark told The Sun: “We are recording the rehearsal so we can look through it but we wouldn’t cut to it if something happened. It is live, live!”
The cast will be singing the classic songs How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, Edelweiss, Do-Re-Mi, My Favorite Things, Climb Ev’ry Mountain and the title song over a pre-recorded 32-piece orchestra.
The huge production involves three stages featuring real grass and trees, believed to have cost around £750,000, as well as 300 crew and 17 cameras as the two-and-a-half hour production goes live from London’s Three Mills Studios.
The only back up that the cast do have is two microphones in case one fails, Fiona revealed.
While Kara’s fancy footwork is well-known from her winning turn on Strictly Come Dancing, all ears will be on her singing voice as she plays the role made famous by Julie Andrews in the 1965 film.
As the free-spirited Austrian nun-turned-governess, Kara can be seen wearing a grey shirt and matching pinafore dress, sensible ankle socks and brown brogues, and a nun’s wimple on her head.
Downton Abbey’s Julian Ovenden will play her love interest Captain Georg von Trapp, a widower and father of the seven children that Maria looks after.
While Julian is professionally trained and has sung musical theatre at several BBC Proms, Kara has had no professional training.
However, her first acting experience came playing daughter Brigitta von Trapp in the musical at Cliffs Pavilion in Essex.
Mr Selfridge’s Katherine Kelly will play Baroness Elsa Schraeder and Pointless’ Alexander Armstrong will star at Max Detweiler.
Mel Giedroyc will play housekeeper Frau Schmidt, with the production directed by her sister Coky and Tony award-winner Martin Koch.
The Sound Of Music Live will air on December 20 at 7.30pm on ITV.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article