The mood on the set of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria yesterday was as vibrant as the green and purple dirndls the last two contestants, Elicia MacKenzie and Janna Polzin, wore as they awaited the results of the show’s final vote.
And by night’s end, the audience was alive with the sound of cheering as MacKenzie was named the winner of the reality competition – and the newest Maria von Trapp in the upcoming Mirvish production of The Sound of Music.
MacKenzie, a 23-year-old from Vancouver, had previously considered massage therapy as a career. During the CBC series, which began with 50 potential Marias, she had been pegged as a dark horse and emerged as a favourite in viewers’ votes.
Polzin, from Woodstock, Ont., had been a clear frontrunner from the start.
When host Gavin Crawford announced the results, MacKenzie gasped and hugged Polzin. Judges John Barrowman and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber wiped away tears.
MacKenzie had written on her blog that if she won the part of Maria, made famous by Julie Andrews in the 1965 film The Sound of Music, she’d host a tea party for her friends at Lloyd Webber’s house.
Audience members, some wearing festive nuns’ habits, whooped as Webber said, "I'll get the crockery out, and it'll be something stronger than tea."
The Mirvish production will open at the Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto this fall, with Lloyd Webber serving as producer. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin next month.
This version of The Sound of Music originally ran a few years ago in London, England, and also involved enlisting the public vote to cast the lead part.
No word yet on whether Polzin will be an understudy.
melissa@tvguide.ca
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