The cast is led by Kara Tointon as Maria and Julian Ovenden as Captain Georg von Trapp. Tointon, who is best known for her TV appearances in "EastEnders," has been seen on the West End stage as Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmalion. Ovenden, who has had a featured role in TV's "Downton Abbey," is well known for his appearances in such stage musicals as Merrily We Roll Along and Annie Get Your Gun in London, and Death Takes a Holiday in New York. He was most recently seen on the West End stage in My Night with Reg that transferred from the Donmar Warehouse.



Also in the cast are Katherine Kelly as Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Alexander Armstrong as Max Detweiler. Maria Friedman as Mother Abbess and Mel Giedroyc as Frau Schmidt.



It is directed by Coky Giedroyc, with live TV direction by Richard Valentine. The musical supervisor is Martin Koch.

In a press statement, ITV’s Director of Entertainment and Comedy Elaine Bedell commented,"This is the first time in the UK that this type of project has been attempted—a musical drama both performed and broadcast live—but big ambitious live television events is what ITV does well. We've assembled some of the very best talent both in front of and behind the camera and I can't wait to see it all come together."



Ted Chapin, President of the licensing company Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, added, "The Sound of Music really is in a class by itself. Since the early sixties, it has lived on as both an award-winning Broadway musical and an award-winning film. The notion of creating a production for live television broadcast is a large undertaking, and one we are delighted ITV has taken on for what will undoubtedly be a Christmas time treat for the whole of the U.K." A live televised production of The Sound of Music was presented in the U.S. by NBC-TV in 2013.