She shouldn’t have been able to sing in the first place, but Connie Fisher tells Viv Hardwick of the risky throat surgery which saved her career.

ONCE upon a time Connie Fisher couldn’t escape the irritation of being called Connie Francis at auditions, now the showbiz world is buzzing about BBC’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria winner surviving a career-threatening vocal chords operation to return to the role.

“It was hard to take when a specialist said it was remarkable that I had a singing career in the first place, so I’ve been nervous ever since. But these things are sent to try us and I was told at one stage ‘you probably won’t sing again and have to think about doing something else’,” says 26-year-old Fisher of her meeting with a Boston throat surgeon in February.

“I’d had a tour which I’d had to cancel and that was devastating, but at the same time I was determined to beat the odds,”

says the singer, who opted to have an operation by the same man who tried to cure Julie Andrews singing problems.

“She actually needed a similar operation and I had the same surgeon.

When I found out I was ill I was told to go to the world’s leading surgeon and I contacted her and she told me to go to him because he was so good. He told me he’d never seen a singer have this disorder before because anyone with congenital fusion anomalies like me can’t usually sing. He said ‘I don’t know how you’re doing this, if I can help to make it easier I’ll do it’. He didn’t completely fix the problem, but it is now possible for me to live with and perform with. To actually get back on stage was brilliant,” she says.

Fisher was born with fused vocal chords and says she’s learned to live with it. “It makes life hard as a leading lady, but as they say in the musical ‘climb every mountain until you find your dream’. That’s a good motto.”

She knows she’ll have to be careful with her singing voice for the rest of her career and feels her recovery is similar to that of a throat cancer patient on the mend. “In the future my life will be made easier as technology improves and an injection might be possible one day, but for now I’m a singer coping with a congenital disorder.

“My singing teacher said to me if you can’t sing with your voice, sing with your heart. And I often think of that advice.”

Were there any doubts in her mind about taking on the role for the major Sound Of Music tour which arrives at the Sunderland Empire next month for two weeks?

“Gosh, I think that I had so many letters addressed to me at the Palladium that I knew if a tour opportunity came up it would finish the experience for me. There were lots of other roles I wanted to play and the tour did come up quite quickly, but I’d had loads of fanmail saying ‘when are you going to come to us because I can’t come to London?’. For me it felt right to go on tour, particularly starting in Cardiff, and I’m enjoying the experience a thousand times more than the Palladium,” she says.

So she’s back with a bang rather than a wimple and taking on one of the most challenging roles in stage musicals.

“I’m now working with a completely different cast apart from Maddy Priestley who was also in the West End. And with different actors you react differently and it feels like a different show. The reaction we’re getting at stage door is that this slightly shorter version with a few song changes does make the show work better.

“The pressure of the Palladium used to be me, but now I feel I’ve been accepted into the role and I’m being Maria every night and I’m having fun and playing with the role.”

So how is her new Captain von Trapp, Michael Praed, shaping up?

“He’s dishy,” she laughs, “and apparently he looks good in tights I’m told. I’ve not seen them, but I have seen his quick changes and he’s not bad. Shows are often criticised because the leading man and lady don’t have the right chemistry and on and off stage we get on really well. The great thing is that he’s quite a tall captain because I’m quite tall and I’ve always had quite short captains before. Now I have to stand on tip-toe to kiss him which looks better.”

THE other important performance lies with the von Trapp children, played by three teams of youngsters.

“We have three sets of six kids because 16-17 Liesel is played by an actress (Claire Fishenden) who is actually older than me,” says Fisher who confesses she’s stopped trying to remember the names of each child and now just focuses on the character they are playing.

“You see them as characters rather than ‘it’s Sophie down for Brigitta’ because the children are cast to look similar and you tend to accept what they throw at you each night. The best bit about the show is often that different children’s teams react differently and it keeps the show fresh. They really are the sparkle in the show for me and are going to be leading men and women of the future.”

A personal sparkle for Fisher was getting engaged to banker Jeremy Reed, with the wedding set for September 11 next year. The couple met at a railway station and Fisher feels that it’s helpful to have someone in her life who isn’t linked to showbusiness.

“He’s been a great supporter with my album coming out this year and he proposed to me just before opening night on the tour which was very sweet because it was a year to the day that we met on the platform in Cardiff. He pulled out this ring and I said ‘okay’. It’s amazing.

“He’s actually seen the show more than anyone, and I don’t think our relationship will infringe (career-wise) on anything I want to do. I’d like to do some more television and present my own radio show.

I’m quite an ambitious girl and I don’t think anyone will tie me down in terms of ambition, but I think it’s all right to be tied down by marriage.”

Weirdly the first project her fiance saw her filming was a short film called The Wedding Dress with Fisher running down Oxford Street in a pink wedding dress with bright red hair.

“Now I have to pick out a wedding dress to wear in real life,” says Fisher who feels that playing Maria until February in Edinburgh will complete two years to remember.

“I’m reluctant to leave, but I know my days in the hills must come to an end.

Ambition-wise I’d love to do more documentaries about musicals,” she says having presented a programme about the real-life Maria in Austria.

“I’d like to inspire those people who were stuck in jobs like I was, tele-sales and Pizza Express, to go for their dreams rather than pass it by. Because I know how easy it is to give up on that dream.”

■ The Sound Of Music runs at Sunderland Empire, November 17- December 5. Monday 7pm, Tuesday- Saturday evenings at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm. Tickets: £15-£39.50.

24hr Booking Line: 0844 847 2499 sunderlandempire.org.uk