Abigail "Abi" Finley (born 10 September 1982) is an actress and musical theatre performer from

Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester, north of Salford and south of Bury. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England, the daughter of a prominent local Jewish performer.Totally Jewish
Finley has notably played Fiona in '' Blondel'' at the

Pleasance Pleasance may refer to: People * Pleasance Pendred (1864–1948), British women's rights activist and suffragette * Pleasance Smith (1773–1877), English letter writer, literary editor and centenarian * Richard Pleasance, Australian rock musici ...

Theatre,

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

London and Serena in '' Fame'' on a UK national tour. Since landing these leading roles, Finley has been highly praised for her singing voice and acting skills. Finley first came to national attention for her appearance on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Reality TV programme '' How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' in 2006, where she was known as ''Tomboy Maria''. This was produced by

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broad ...

and

David Ian David Ian (born David Ian Lane; February 1961) is a British theatre producer and former actor. Biography Ian started out as an actor and appeared in a number of UK theatre productions, including the musicals ''The Pirates of Penzance'', '' Jo ...

to find someone to play

Maria von Trapp Maria Augusta von Trapp Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Catholic), DHS (; 26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987), often styled as "Baroness", was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family, Trapp Family Singers. She wrote ''The Story of the ...

in ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. ...

''. She appeared on the show with her best friend from college,

Aoife Mulholland Aoife Mulholland ( , ; born 29 May 1982) is an Irish actress and musical theatre performer from Salthill, Galway. Aoife is a successful leading lady in London's West End. She has starred as Roxie Hart (twice) in ''Chicago'', at the Cambridge ...

, and reached the semi-final of the BBC competition; but in a twist of fate she lost out to Mulholland in the sing-off, singing " Any Dream Will Do".

Career

Shortly after ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' finished in late 2006, Finley was cast by the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning lyricist Sir

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ''Jesus C ...

in his revival of '' Blondel''. On casting Finley, Rice said in an interview with ''

Hello Magazine ''Hello!'' (stylised in all caps) is a British weekly magazine specialising in celebrity news and human-interest stories, first published in the United Kingdom on 21 May 1988, following the format of '' ¡Hola!'', the Spanish weekly magazine. ...

'', "Fiona has to be funny, feisty, and sexy. Plenty of candidates have two of the necessary attributes. Only Abi had all three... when you see Abi on stage, you actually want to look at her. I'd be amazed if Abi is not a big star pretty soon." Geoff Ambler, reviewing ''Blondel'', said of Finley's performance, "Abi Finley, the beautiful and talented one from ''A Problem like Maria'', proves that she can act with confident poise among the best, as well as sing, in what is her professional stage debut. This tight, witty show with its tremendous cast is one of the best to open in London this year." In early 2007, straight from Blondel, Finley landed the part of Serena in '' Fame'' on a UK national tour. She had to audition for the part, then rehearse, while also learning the part of Fiona in Blondel. Ian Pearce, who reviewed the show for the

, said, "The first thing that strikes you is the quality of the live band and the sheer exuberance of the dancing... a strong performance comes from Abi Finley as the somewhat dowdy Serena." On Christmas Eve 2007, Finley was seen performing with Lee Mead and Connie Fisher and some of the other ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' and ''Any Dream Will Do'' finalists in a BBC special "festive" reunion show called ''When Joseph met Maria!'', celebrating both the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber BBC shows, recorded earlier on 2 December 2007. ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' won an international

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2007 for best non-scripted entertainment. From 6 May 2008, Finley starred as Miranda, the disembodied German head in ''

Betwixt! ''Betwixt!'' is a musical comedy conceived and written by Ian McFarlane. It also played a concert version in the West End at the Ambassadors Theatre. Production history 2008 London Fringe The show premiered in The King's Head Theatre London ...

The Musical''. The show opened on 6 May 2008, and ran until 22 June at

The King's Head Theatre The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London. The original venue was the oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2024, the pub theatre, and the King's Head Theatre now operates from a purpose- ...

, Islington. Finley starred as Jane in Gareth Peter's ''Bluebird the Musical'', a musical set in the Second World War, alongside '' I'd Do Anything'' finalist

Sarah Lark Sarah Lark (born 28 January 1983) is a Welsh singer and actress who rose to fame when she competed as one of the finalists in the BBC talent show-themed television series '' I'd Do Anything'' in 2008. Background Lark was born in Roath, Cardif ...

and

Ramin Karimloo Ramin Karimloo (; ; born ) is a Canadian actor, singer, and songwriter known for his work on the West End theatre, West End and Broadway theatre, Broadway theatre. He has played the leading roles in both of the West End's longest running musica ...

. During December 2011 and January 2012, Finley will be appearing in the German production of the tribal-rock musical ''Hair'', in which she plays ensemble and covers the lead role of Sheila.

Roles

*2008: Miranda in ''Betwixt! The musical'',

, Islington *2006: Fiona in '' Blondel'' at the ''

Theatre'', Islington.Blondel Official Site
, ''Press Release''. URL. Retrieved 25 July 2007. Rice was personally involved in casting Finley following her appearance on ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' *Previous roles include Annie in ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...

'', Rizzo in ''Grease'', Blousey in ''Bugsy Malone'', Edith in ''Pirates of Penzance'', Calamity Jane in ''Calamity Jane'', and the Narrator in ''Joseph''.

Education

She attended King David Yavneh school in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, then earned a BA (honours) degree in English and Drama at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

before going on to complete a master's degree in musical theatre at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

Personal

The singer and actress, originally from

, now resides in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon. It is ...

, London. Her talent shone from a very early age when she starred in virtually every production that her high school in

, King David Yavneh, put on. From there she went on to study for a degree in English and Drama at the University of Leeds, and her course led to her landing the title role in ''

Calamity Jane Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1856 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American American frontier, frontierswoman, Exhibition shooting, sharpshooter, sex worker, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known f ...

'' and Annie in ''Oklahoma!''. She then studied for a master's degree at the

in London, where she appeared in productions including ''A Winter's Tale'' (as Paulina) and '' Grease'' (as Rizzo). This is where she met her best friend,

, who was also studying on the same course, and together they decided to audition for ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?''. In her ''Hello! Magazine'' interview, Finley said, "Aoife and I thought we would make a big weekend of it he BBC audition.. we were like a couple of new kids holding hands in the big school playground."
/ref> On her time in ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'' Finley has said, "It was like a holiday camp and school trip rolled into one. We would sit around the lounge in the evenings watching reality TV and saying how much we hated it. We forgot we were doing it!" And on getting the leading role breaks after ''How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?'', "I know it is a cliché, but honestly and truly I am living the dream, doing something I always wanted to do. I have to pinch myself sometimes. I am so lucky to be doing what I love doing on a daily basis – you can't ask for any more."

References

External links

*
News on all the ex-Maria's
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finley, Abi 1982 births Living people Jewish English actresses English television actresses English musical theatre actresses Actors from the London Borough of Barnet Actors from Prestwich Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers Actresses from Greater Manchester Alumni of the University of Leeds Actresses from London People from Finchley