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Emma Williams Withdraws from The Sound of Music
by Theatre.com Staff
Emma Williams has withdrawn from The Sound of Music, where she had been contracted as an alternate Maria. The actress, who first came to prominence as Truly Scumptious in the original cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was expected to alternate with the winner of the television search to find Maria in the BBC TV show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, which culminated in drama school graduate Connie Fisher winning the role.
Fisher “will now play all eight performances a week, unless indisposed in which case she would be covered in the usual manner by the understudy,“ according to an official statement. When she won the part, Fisher told the television audience, “I feel on top of the world. I won’t let you down, I promise. Every night will be opening night. Thank you for making my dream come true.”
Producer Andrew Lloyd Webber has insisted on his own website that it is standard practice to hire an alternate. “It was made clear from the outset that we would contract an ‘alternate’ Maria to play two shows a week”, he wrote. “Casting an alternate in a major singing role of this kind has been custom in many West End musicals. I instigated this in 1978 for Evita and also for The Phantom of the Opera.”
The Sounds of Music begins performances at the London Palladium on 3 November.
