Andrews as Maria a result of 'happy circumstances'

Make enough of an impact over enough years, and you're a celebrity forever.

From 1954 until the end of 1968, Julie Andrews could have been billed as Miss Midas. Everything the former Julia Elizabeth Wells touched glittered. The 40th anniversary DVD of "The Sound of Music," for which she is most well known, was released Tuesday.

She conquered Broadway first with "The Boy Friend," "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot." A huge TV audience fell in love with her when she starred in the first TV production -- live -- of the only musical Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote for the tube, "Cinderella."

Jack Warner didn't want her for his 1964 movie of "My Fair Lady" because he figured he needed a bigger name -- an eager Audrey Hepburn -- to bolster the marquee value of Rex Harrison when Warner couldn't persuade Cary Grant to play Professor Henry Higgins.

Walt Disney scooped up Andrews and handed her the lead in the biggest picture he had ever put into production, "Mary Poppins." Not only did it launch her film career in a blockbuster, it led to her winning an Oscar, an improbable reward given the sweetness and light with which the nanny's role was conceived for the screen.

After the critically admired, moderately popular comedy-drama "The Americanization of Emily," which has always been her favorite of her movies, Andrews got the biggest plum of all.

Every eligible singing actress -- and some who couldn't sing at all -- coveted the role of Maria Von Trapp in the film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music," which went on to become the most successful film in history, a status it maintained for several years.

Three more big ones followed -- "Torn Curtain," "Hawaii" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" -- before the crashing and burning of two expensive biggies, "Star," which, as temperamental actress Gertrude Lawrence, she played with an edge we hadn't seen before, and "Darling Lili."

Andrews was to appear in other hits, including "10," where all the attention fell upon Bo Derek and Dudley Moore, and "Victor/Victoria," a major personal triumph later adapted for her for Broadway.

But the Andrews performance that enjoys the most enduring affection is her Maria in "The Sound of Music," from convent novice to stepmother of seven, singing such numbers as "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," "Something Good" and the title song.

For the newly issued "The Sound of Music," Andrews appears in numerous specially filmed and recorded extras, including an audio commentary.

From a New York City hotel a few days ago the 70-year-old Andrews says she suspects it's the picture that always will be most identified with her "... because it was the biggest at the box office. I think you're always remembered most for the one that was most successful."

She may have had an inside track with Rodgers and Hammerstein in getting to play Maria because they knew her Broadway work and because she'd done their "Cinderella."

"And Mr. Disney very kindly allowed Bob Wise (director of 'The Sound of Music') to see some of the 'Mary Poppins' footage. So I think it was an accumulation of a lot of very happy circumstances that I got it."

Andrews hesitated when asked if she was cast before Christopher Plummer.

"I think I was cast ... before ... because when I came aboard there was some dialogue that 'We think we're going to get Chris Plummer,' and I said, 'You have got to get him.' He provided the strength that I think we needed.

Speaking with the crisp enunciation that defines her presence more than anything, Andrews concurred that in the 1960s she was part of the last great wave of Hollywood musicals -- a decade that also offered "West Side Story," "The Music Man," "Bye-Bye, Birdie," "A Hard Day's Night," "Funny Girl," "Oliver" and about two dozen more.

"There was a lack for a while. I think Broadway went into a darker period for musicals and therefore there wasn't that much coming out there, either.

She says the thinks the virtual vanishing of the genre had more to do with budgets and expenses and to some extent perhaps movies themselves.

"I remember when I made a movie called 'Star,' it was not successful because at that time there were things like 'Easy Rider,' low-budget movies that did very well. It was almost a sacrilege to spend a lot of money on a musical."

The semi-musical "Saturday Night Fever" was big, "Jesus Christ, Superstar" did business, and the film of "Grease" was tremendously popular, but most of the attempts to put musicals on the big screen ("Godspell," "Hair," "A Chorus Line") flopped.

Tastes had changed, and two whole generations proved to be generally unresponsive to the notion of characters expressing themselves through song in long-form musicals as opposed to hyper-edited music videos.

"I do think the success of the 'Chicago' on the screen means we're going to see a resurgence," Andrews says.

The musical "Rent" will be released Wednesday and "The Producers" Dec. 25.

"Look at what's on Broadway now -- 'The Producers,' 'Spamalot,' 'Hairspray.' There's a lot more lightness, as well 'Light in the Piazza.'

She credits "Chicago" with heralding the revival of the musical form.

Since the turn of the 21st century, Andrews has turned up in two popular "Princess Diaries" films and as the voice of Queen Lillian in "Shrek 2."

She'll voice the queen again in "Shrek 3," which will be released in 2007.

"I haven't done all of it, only some of it," she says. "That's a work in progress.

"There's a lot of things happening in my life right now -- book publishing, directing for the stage -- 'The Boy Friend' is on tour as we speak, and we're talking about a morning children's television show for PBS, which will air sometime early in '07."