‘There are no barriers’

There are many who might consider it an absolute crime that someone who would look so entirely delectable in a dirndl is instead about to hit the stage of the London Palladium draped from head to toe in a habit and wimple. Lesley Garrett, however, is so thrilled that she can barely contain herself. Other small girls growing up — as millions of us did — with the film of The Sound of Music spooling like an ever-present backing track to our lives might have felt a particular affinity with the rebellious Maria, the confused teenage Liesl or even the obnoxiously winsome Gretl. Not Lesley. Was she surprised to be asked to take on the role of the Mother Abbess? ‘I wasn’t asked — I volunteered. I’ve always wanted to do a West End show, and ever since I first saw the film this is the role I’ve wanted to do. Maria’s a bit obvious in a sense. For me, the song is “Climb Every Mountain”. And in the stage version I get to sing it twice.’

She flings back her head and lets rip with the Garrett laugh, an unrenderable-in-print, witchily gleeful cackle. Isn’t the Mother Abbess generally seen as a wise elderly presence with a big fruity contralto voice? ‘Well, in the film she’s a Grandmother Abbess in a way, but in this stage production she’s definitely more of a mother. And that’s completely perfect for me at this stage of my life because I’ve got two teenage children myself, of an age with the von Trapp children. When I found out that Andrew Lloyd Webber was determined to find a really young Maria, I knew that this was my moment.’

The stage version of The Sound of the Music differs from the film in a number of respects. Rather than comforting the young von Trapps during a thunderstorm by singing to them about schnitzel with noodles and whiskers on kittens, Maria is encouraged by the Mother Abbess to think of her ‘Favourite Things’.