The Main Event: The Sound of Music

'IT'S almost like singing at Wembley every night," says Connie Fisher of the 3,000-seater Edinburgh Playhouse, the biggest theatre on her forthcoming tour. She might be daunted, but she manages to sound cheerful. Connie Fisher always manages to sound cheerful.

The 26-year-old has climbed plenty of mountains since winning reality talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in 2006 to take the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 4million production of The Sound Of Music. She has since played the part countless times, made two albums and sung to millions on TV. The Playhouse won't daunt her for long.

Yet some are surprised to see Fisher back in The Sound Of Music. After 18 months in the West End, she spoke of distancing herself from the part of Maria, exploring other avenues.

"The offer was there to come back at some point," she says, brightly. "Andrew (Lloyd Webber] told me to spread my wings, get Maria out of my system and come back to it again. I thought I was going to come back and close at the Palladium in ten years' time, but unfortunately it only survived another year. It was sooner than expected but I always wanted to go on tour."

Fisher graduated from drama school with flying colours but failed to get parts and was working in a call centre when she shot to fame through the talent show. She quickly became the people's champion, a fresh-faced, hard-working talent, smiley and guileless – a perfect Maria. Veteran theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh described her as "the first real Maria I've seen".

But within months of opening in London, the dream was turning sour. When an illness forced her to take three weeks off, the rumour mill went into overdrive and, when a concert tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, the knives were out again.

Fisher, still just 26, kept her head down, did another musical, They're Playing Our Song, at a Fringe theatre, experimented with television in Caught In A Trap, a drama about an Elvis obsessive, and appeared in a short film which she says will be at Cannes. She may be back in Maria's nun's habit, but she has a clear eye on the future.

The role, she admits, "does feel like a big warm cosy jumper that you pull on and feel gooey and warm inside. If you're playing Hamlet every night, I can imagine you wouldn't want to do more than six weeks, but I'm happy playing Maria every night of the week. You feel so loved, she's a very rewarding role. And I get to kiss (her co-star] Michael Praed every night, so I'm not complaining!

"The last few years have been a rollercoaster and I've learned so much. I think I've come back a better Maria and the show is better for it. I feel like I know her better than ever."

She speaks animatedly about going to Austria to help make a radio documentary and meeting some of the Von Trapp family, on whose story the musical was based. According to them, however, the real Maria Von Trapp was no Julie Andrews.

"They said she was actually not very nice, she was quite feisty. It was amazing to sleep in the bedroom she slept in, and see where they caught the train to Switzerland at the bottom of the garden. They didn't climb the mountain, you see, they got on the train. I think we should stick with the fairy tale."

Meanwhile, Fisher has a fairy tale of her own, with her recent engagement to Jeremy Reed, her boyfriend of some 15 months. They met on a bench in Cardiff Central Station and felt an "instant mutual connection", but she left without taking his number and they met again only thanks to a mutual friend, the opera singer Bryn Terfel. "All these random things happen to me, really wonderful things. I'm a very lucky person," she says.

There's more to Connie Fisher than smiling, fresh-faced Maria. There's a hint of steel, of a girl who has come a long way and has a shrewd eye on her own career. She says she'd love to do a straight play – "that's the only thing I haven't done" – and some radio presenting - "I love to chat". "And I'd like to do some more TV, some quirky stuff, I love comedy," she adds.

"I've moved on from the reality TV thing, I want to get away from that stigma. Some people who have come to see the show now think I was cast as Maria. It's lovely to have people vote for you, but to have the director say: 'If I'd seen you for this in an audition you'd have got this anyway' is much more of a compliment." v

Playhouse, Edinburgh, Tuesday until 20 February, call 0844 847 1660; His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, 1-17 April, call 01224 641122. www.thesoundofmusictour.com

• This article first appeared in Scotland on Sunday, 17 January, 2010