The hills are alive with the sound of music again, after 50 years

It’s the most successful musical in movie history. And now the hills are once again alive as The Sound of Music celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Next week a major touring musical rolls into Scotland at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre. And next month, marketing mania will reach full tilt as the film will be released on a special Ultimate Collector’s Edition.

The lead of Maria is taken by Danielle Hope and the 22-year-old is one of those who grew up with the perennially-popular movie on TV.

“My late grandmother Ede used to have it on all the time,” Danielle told The Sunday Post. “Our family used to go to her home every Sunday in life and it was a mad, manic time with loads of young kids about and the film always on.”

Danielle’s own tale sounds as if it could have come straight out of a Hollywood movie.

While round at her gran’s, she watched a bit of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? Danielle was just a kid with dreams and Connie Fisher won the TV series and the role and went on to fame.

Gran Ede said it was the sort of thing keen singer Danielle should think of. But a few years later when it came to the next telly talent hunt, Over The Rainbow, it was Danielle’s time for glory.

Viewers’ votes saw her picked as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and a career as one of Britain’s biggest stage stars has followed.

“I’ve been blessed,” Danielle says simply. “The Wizard of Oz was an absolute gift and the public helped get me there. I was working with Michael Crawford on my first job and there I was as a leading lady at 18.

“Then came Les Miserables but now to get my all-time favourite in The Sound Of Music as my first adult role is a dream.

“My only sadness is that my gran won’t be there. She was brought down in her wheelchair to the London Palladium to see me as Dorothy once. She said she hoped I’d tour so she could see me but she passed away a few months ago and it’s such a shame. I always think of her and I take her on stage with me.”

Ever since the film was released back in 1965, it has been a phenomenon.

It’s the most successful movie musical in history and is still the third highest-grossing film of all time. It won five Oscars and Julie Andrews was partnered on screen by Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp.

The film, with numerous cinematic liberties, is based on the true story of the Von Trapp family and their flight from the Germans.

Filmed in Austria, the movie has been a goldmine for local tourism. Around 300,000 Sound of Music lovers head to Salzburg every year to visit the movie locations and the places where the Von Trapp family lived.

Andrews and Plummer have been back filming a special documentary for the anniversary and she reckons it’s even more high profile than the hoopla last year for Mary Poppins.

“That wasn’t as big as The Sound of Music is going to be,” says Andrews. “We went to a lot of places for the documentary.

“The ‘kids’ weren’t there because they were doing separate things but we’re all getting together at some point.”

The sheer good spiritedness of the movie with its wealth of toe tapping songs from the Hills Are Alive and Edelweiss to Do-Re-Mi and I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen make it hard to resist.

As well as the DVD release, cinemas are having special sing-a-long screenings.

“Somewhere Over The Rainbow is one of the most famous songs and On My Own from Les Miserables is so well known,” adds Danielle. “But just about everything from The Sound of Music is world famous and that’s what makes it so special.”

The Sound of Music is at the King’s Theatre from Monday February 16.

Ten Reel-life facts of a classic

It’s reported that the film was once picked by BBC bosses to be broadcast after a nuclear strike to cheer up survivors.

Real-life Maria insisted she wasn’t invited to the film’s glitzy premiere and when she asked why was told there were no tickets left.

Christopher Plummer ate and drank so much during the film his costumes had to be made larger.

Plummer wasn’t a fan of the whole project. During shooting, he admitted being drunk during a scene and referred to the film as The Sound of Mucus.

A stunt child was carried on Plummer’s shoulders in the scene fleeing over the mountains as Kym Krath, who played Gretl, had become too heavy.

A scene which involved falling out of a rowboat was a nightmare for Krath, who couldn’t swim. She swallowed so much water she threw up on her co-star.

Julie Andrews had problems with the famous opening scene, running over the hills. The downdraft from the filming helicopter kept knocking her over.

Sean Connery and Richard Burton and Bing Crosby had been tipped to play Captain von Trapp.

After the real Von Trapps fled Austria, their home was taken over by the Nazis and Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler visited.

Hollywood stars Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfus were two of the names who failed auditions to be one of the kids.