A SINGER from Malvern has gone from bar to star at Birmingham Hippodrome where she is taking a leading role in The Sound of Music.

Philippa Buxton, aged 26, is the alternate Maria to Connie Fisher, who shot to fame in 2006 when she won the TV talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

Philippa appears on stage every Monday and Wednesday, when Connie Fisher has her days off, and is ready to step into her shoes should she fall ill. The touring production by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company will be on the road for another 10 months.

Phillippa is no stranger to the Hippodrome, as she used to work in the bar there during her days studying music at Birmingham University.

“I’d hear the singers rehearsing in their dressing – rooms and I’d just wish it was me, and now my dream has come true,” she said.

It’s been a long road to the stage for Philippa, who grew up in West Malvern and went to the Wells House school and King’s School in Worcester before university.

“It’s been hard work, and there are times when you’re unemployed and it all looks very hopeless, but you just keep going,” she said.

Philippa has already been mixing with the famous; on Tuesday, when she was doing an interview at BBC Radio WM about the show, she heard that Prime Minister David Cameron was also in the studio.

Rounding up some children who were touring the studio, she serenaded Mr Cameron with The Sound of Music.

“He was delighted. He said it was the first time anyone has sung to him as prime minister,” said Philippa.