Canadian Idol

Now this is someone to vote for.

Canadian television viewers will get the chance to select the actress who will play Maria von Trapp in the North American premiere of "The Sound of Music," the producers said on Wednesday.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian's hit London production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic will debut in Toronto next September.

The producers are teaming with CBC television to broadcast the rehearsals in an eight-part prime-time series called "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?."

"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"sounds more like West Side Story than the Sound of Music. And this is Canadian Idol, CBC style.

"We really want to get this search from the ground up," said Randy Alldread, a spokesman for Mirvish Productions which will present the play at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre.

"We're looking to make somebody a star."

Kaching the hills are alive with the sound of cash registers.

Unlike the last open-ended musical to inhabit the P of W – the notoriously risky and interminable Lord of the Rings – this one chirps with the sound of money.

Lord Lloyd Webber does not like to discuss such crass matters, but sources say he is putting up one-third of the money for the $12 million Toronto production.

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