How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? - Prologue

In London in 2006 Andrew Lloyd Weber and David Ian set out to mount a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Open auditions were held for the lead role of the young governess and novice, Maria. Once the field of thousands of hopefuls was winnowed to 10, the BBC produced a reality series out of the final selection process, with finalists eliminated on the basis of viewer voting. In the end, Connie Fisher was named Maria.

This October Mirvish Productions brings The Sound of Music to Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre and CBC is producing a live talent competition reality series out of Canada’s own search for Maria, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?. The 7 week, 14 episode series premiers June 15th.

Open calls for HDYSAPLM (it’s shortened to Maria by some, which I don’t get at all. A perfectly valid reason for typing HDYSAPLM and I’m gonna go for Maria? I don’t think so.) began January 25th in Toronto and ended 6 cities and 2 weeks later in St. John's. Out of the thousands that auditioned, 200 were brought to Toronto for callbacks in front of celebrity judges. Out of the 200, 48 were selected to attend "Maria School," which is where the TV series joins the search.

By the end of the hour long premier the 48 will be narrowed to 20. The following night, Monday the 16th, the top 20 perform at the London Palladium in a private concert before Andrew Lloyd Webber and his guests. Between them, they select the final 10.
From Episode 3 on June 22, we are live. Sunday nights are performances, voting follows and Monday nights are the results. The Episode 1 recap will be up by 11 ET