Aoife Mulholland solves the problem with Maria

TV runner-up shares role with Connie Fisher

Friday, 13 April 2007

After she was voted off the BBC's talent show to find a new star for the leading role in The Sound Of Music, Aoife Mulholland assumed she had said auf wiedersehen to Maria Von Trapp.

But, from Monday, she will give two performances a week on stage at the London Palladium.

The 28-year-old will be sharing the limelight with Connie Fisher, who won the part on Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

Connie, 23, has been dogged with illness recently so theatre bosses have decided to reduce the number her performances.

Aifoe, who came fourth in the TV show and went on to star as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, says she's thrilled to be given a second chance.

'I got this call out of the blue six weeks ago, asking me to come in because Andrew Lloyd Webber wanted to see me again,' she tells the Evening Standard. 'A couple of days after that they told me I'd got the part. I just couldn't believe it.'

Since then, Aifoe has been combining two roles. 'Going back from Roxie to Maria has been tough - for the first week I was rehearsing a nun by day and performing a murderer by night,' she explains.

'If anyone had said a year ago that I'd be in one West End show, never mind two, I'd have never believed it. This all feels like a dream.'