CBC to Launch New Talent Search Series

TORONTO, December 21: Canada’s CBC Television has announced a partnership with Temple Street Productions to produce a local version of the BBC’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, a new seven-city talent competition series that searches for Canada’s next big musical theater star.

Conceived by legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer David Ian for the BBC, the eight-week long Canadian adaptation will allow the Canadian public to choose who will play the star role of Maria von Trapp in a new production of Webber’s The Sound of Music, which will open in October 2008 at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre. The show is slated to broadcast on CBC next summer.

Open casting calls will be held across the country throughout January and February. The auditions will be held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax and St. John’s. Thousands across the country are expected to audition, and will be narrowed to a group of 200 who will be invited for callbacks in Toronto. From this group, approximately 50 women will be selected to attend “Maria School” for rigorous—and competitive—training sessions and evaluations.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? is executive produced by Sheila Hockin, David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg.

“I am delighted that How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? is coming to Canada,” said Webber. “It was an enormous success in the U.K. We discovered a fantastic Maria. Not only that, we discovered many talented actresses who have also gone on to play leading roles around the U.K. and the icing on the cake was that we won an Emmy.”

—By Ned Berke