Opera North has announced soprano Katie Bird will play Maria in a revival of The Sound of Music at Leeds Grand Theatre in summer 2026. The production, based on Curve’s staging, reunites much of the original creative team for this classic musical.

Opera North will present The Sound of Music at Leeds Grand Theatre from 9 July to 1 August 2026, with Katie Bird cast as Maria. The revival is based on Curve’s hit production which debuted in Leicester at the end of 2025. The company’s Chorus and Orchestra will perform under the direction of Nikolai Foster, known for his work on Kinky Boots, My Fair Lady, and A Chorus Line.

Several members of the original Curve creative team return, including set and costume designer Michael Taylor, lighting designer Mark Henderson, and choreographer Ebony Molina. Oliver Rundell will serve as musical director for the revival.

Alongside Bird, Katherine Broderick will appear as Mother Abbess. Broderick is currently touring with Opera North as Marcellina in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and is a 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Award winner who trained at the Guildhall School of Music and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig.

Other named roles taken by Chorus of Opera North members include Kamil Bień as Rolf Gruber, Amy Freston as Baroness Elsa Schraeder, and Nicholas Butterfield as Max Detweiler. Molly Barker-Knowles, Hannah Mason, and Gillene Butterfield will play the von Trapp family’s governesses Sister Berthe, Sister Margaretta, and Sister Sophia respectively. Dean Robinson, Claire Pascoe, Ivan Sharpe, and Tim Ochala-Greenough round out the named cast in supporting roles.

Tickets will include £10 seats for under-30s and £22 options through Leeds Grand Theatre’s Secret Seats scheme. The run will also feature matinee and accessible performances, including captioned, BSL-interpreted, and audio described shows with touch tours.

Written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, The Sound of Music features music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical originally opened on Broadway in 1959, was made into a famous 1965 film, and follows novice nun Maria as she transforms the lives of the von Trapp family against a backdrop of political upheaval in Austria.

Laura Canning, general director of Opera North, said the production will “appeal to everyone who has already fallen under the story’s charm, while also engaging a whole new generation of fans,” adding that hearing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score performed by the Orchestra of Opera North in Leeds Grand Theatre “promises to be a truly special occasion.”