How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?

How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria? is a British reality television talent show that documented the search for an undiscovered musical theatre performer to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the 2006 Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian stage production of The Sound of Music.
The series was originally devised by the then in-house development team at BBC Entertainment Events and was announced by the BBC in April 2006. BBC One broadcast the programme, which was hosted by Graham Norton, on Saturday evenings from 29 July through 16 September 2006.
The title derives from the refrain of "Maria", a song from the first act of The Sound of Music.
Connie Fisher won the final public vote, and with it a six-month contract to play Maria in the West End production.

Format

Creation

The lead role of Maria von Trapp in the new West End production of The Sound of Music, to be staged by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian, was to be played by American actress Scarlett Johansson. Negotiations fell through, and after a four-year search for an actress to fill the role, it was revealed in November 2005 that Lloyd Webber had approached the BBC to allow the public to cast the role through a Popstars-style talent search, the first time that such a format had been used.
This was the first programme to allow the public to cast a leading role in a West End show, and it was initially criticised. However, it won International Emmy and Royal Television Society awards and became the first of a series of collaborations between the BBC and Lloyd Webber, including Any Dream Will Do, I'd Do Anything, and Over the Rainbow. The series also led to versions and similar series abroad.

Expert panel

To assess and train the potential Marias and judge them during the live shows, an expert panel was chosen. The panel comprised:

Andrew Lloyd Webber – musical theatre composer and producer, co-producer of the new stage production
David Ian – theatre producer, co-producer of the new stage production
John Barrowman – musical performer, dancer, singer and actor
Zoe Tyler – voice coach, singer and performer, vocal coach to the finalists

Lloyd Webber also asked Denise van Outen to participate in the series, but she turned him down, saying that she "felt uncomfortable about being on the panel and giving my criticism". She later became a judge on follow-up series, Any Dream Will Do.

Auditions

Open auditions were held around the UK in April and May 2006, open to both professionals and amateurs over the age of 17. The top 200 made it through to the London callbacks where they performed for Ian, Barrowman and Tyler to secure one of 50 places at Lloyd Webber's "Maria School", where over four days they would receive vocal and drama training from the expert panel.
Several additional performers were selected over this fifty contestant limit; one being Briony, who had been rejected initially due to nerves hampering her performance, but who returned for a second chance and was allowed in by Ian. A further four, whom the panel had rejected, were contacted by Lloyd Webber himself as he personally believed them to be potential Marias.
During "Maria School", contestants were eliminated to leave twenty, who were then taken to Lloyd Webber's house, where they performed for fifty people from the entertainment business. Ten finalists were then chosen by the panel and taken through to the live studio finals.
The series started on Saturday 29 July 2006, and the first two programmes followed the audition stages of the competition before revealing the final ten at the end of the second programme.

Live finals

The final ten contestants then competed in the live studio finals held on Saturday nights over six weeks. Each week the contestants sang and performed during the live show, receiving comments from the judges following their performance. The public then got a chance to vote for their favourite Maria, and the two contestants with the fewest votes performed a sing-off in front of Lloyd Webber, who then decided which Maria to keep in the contest. This was repeated with the top ten, the top nine and the top eight. With the top seven and top five, two were voted off in the program, and there were two different sing-offs.
Lloyd Webber had no say in the final casting decision, when in the concluding edition of the series it was left to the public to choose who should play Maria out of the final two contenders, Connie Fisher and Helena Blackman. After more than 2 million votes were cast, the winning entrant was revealed as Fisher, who won a six-month contract to play Maria in the West End production, performing six out of the eight weekly shows.
The profits from the telephone votes went to a bursary for young performers. Lloyd Webber also donated his fee to the bursary.

Finalists

Ten potential Marias were selected as finalists who would appear on the live shows. Abi Finley and Aoife Mulholland auditioned together having known each other from college, and both made it to the finals. One of the original 10 finalists, Emilie Alford, withdrew from the competition after deciding it was not for her. She was replaced by Siobhan Dillon, who lost a place in the final ten following a sing-off against Alford and Laura Sicurello in front of Lloyd Webber. This earned her the nickname "Second Chance Maria".

Finalist	Age*	From	Dress colour	Status
Laura Sicurello	26	Milton Keynes	Yellow	Eliminated 1st in Week 1
Belinda Evans	28	Somerset	Dark blue	Eliminated 2nd in Week 2
Meliz Serman	23	Chingford	Gold	Eliminated 3rd in Week 3
Simona Armstrong	28	Greenford	Purple	Eliminated 4th in Week 4
Leanne Dobinson	20	Colchester	Lilac	Eliminated 5th in Week 4
Abigail "Abi" Finley	23	Prestwich	Light blue	Eliminated 6th in Week 5
Aoife Mulholland	28	Salthill	Green	Eliminated 7th in Week 5
Siobhan Dillon	21	Staffordshire	Red	Third place
Helena Blackman	23	Southampton	Pink	Runner-up
Connie Fisher	23	Haverfordwest	Orange	Winner

*As of start of series

Results summary

;Colour key

Live shows

The live shows saw the finalists eliminated one by one following both individual and group performances. Once eliminated, the leaving contestant ended the programme by leading a performance of "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music with the remaining contestants.

Week 1

Following the first week of competition. The show performances were:

Group performances:
*"How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?"
*"I Have Confidence"

Act	Performance Pair	Order	Song	Result
Leanne Dobinson	Pair 1	1	"It's Oh So Quiet"	Safe
Laura Sicurello	Pair 1	2	"Torn"	Bottom two
Aoife Mulholland	Pair 2	3	"Runaway"	Safe
Abi Finley	Pair 2	4	"Nobody Does It Better"	Safe
Siobhan Dillon	Pair 3	5	"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"	Safe
Connie Fisher	Pair 3	6	" A Natural Woman"	Safe
Simona Armstrong	Pair 4	7	"Over the Rainbow"	Safe
Belinda Evans	Pair 4	8	"Over the Rainbow"	Safe
Helena Blackman	Pair 5	9	"Crazy Chick"	Bottom 2
Meliz Serman	Pair 5	10	"Son of a Preacher Man"	Safe

Guest performance: "Iris"
Panel's verdict on who was Maria
*John Barrowman: Connie
*Zoe Tyler: Leanne
*David Ian: Connie

Sing-Off

Act	Sing Off Song	Results
Laura Sicurello	"No Matter What" from Whistle Down the Wind	Eliminated
Helena Blackman	"No Matter What" from Whistle Down the Wind	Saved by Lloyd Webber

Notes
*It was revealed during the results show that Connie received the highest number of votes
Week 2

As the mission for this week, the potential Marias performed a scene from the musical with an actor as Captain Von Trapp.
The show performances were:

Group performances:
*"My Favorite Things"
*"Don't Rain on My Parade"

Act	Performance Pair	Order	Song	Result
Belinda Evans	Pair 1	1	"Fever"	Bottom two
Abi Finley	Pair 1	2	"The Closest Thing to Crazy"	Safe
Simona Armstrong	Pair 2	3	"Material Girl"	Safe
Meliz Serman	Pair 2	4	"The Voice Within"	Bottom 2
Helena Blackman	Solo Performance	5	"Woman in Love"	Safe
Connie Fisher	Pair 3	6	"Shout"	Safe
Leanne Dobinson	Pair 3	7	"See the Day"	Safe
Siobhan Dillon	Pair 4	8	"Chains"	Safe
Aoife Mulholland	Pair 4	9	"If My Friends Could See Me Now"	Safe

Guest performance: "You Can't Stop a River"