New York ? At 56, Maureen McGovern finds herself quite literally – and happily – homeless.

The Grammy-nominated singer best known for the song “The Morning After” has placed her Los Angeles home on the market, given up her New York apartment and put all her worldly possessions into storage.

For the next year, she’s hitting the road.

“It’s kind of exciting,” she says. “I’m free as a bird.”

Until August 2006, McGovern will be appearing as Marmee in the road production of “Little Women,” taking the musical in which she starred on Broadway through more than 30 cities, from Seattle to Detroit to Salt Lake City.

“The hardest part is what to leave behind,” says the self-described pack-rat who has amassed various collections, including antique bells, through the years. “It’s time to let go!”

And, of course, it’s time for some really good luggage.

“Sturdy luggage,” she gently corrects over lunch at a snazzy hotel restaurant. “Good luggage is a waste of money. Make it sturdy luggage. The airlines will destroy it anyway.”

As daunting as a year on the road might sound, McGovern seems unfazed. It’s a quality that Susan H. Schulman, director of “Little Women” and a friend since the two met on the road in Pittsburgh in 1981, admires.

Maureen McGovern portrays Marmee in a scene from Little

“You know, a lot of people just can’t do it. They get out there and go, ‘Ooh. Wait a second. I have to pack now?”‘ Schulman says. “I couldn’t do it. I see a suitcase and have a nervous breakdown. She doesn’t. She just packs up her stuff and she goes.”

McGovern goes for one good reason: Pretty much ever since she was discovered – singing in a Ramada Inn lounge outside Cleveland, no less – the road has been McGovern’s friend.

“My whole life’s been a tour,” she says with a laugh.

Early success

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, McGovern came out of the gate hard. When she was just 23, she was taped to sing “The Morning After” for the disaster flick “The Poseidon Adventure.” The soundtrack promptly went gold, the song itself won the Academy Award in 1972, and it earned her a Grammy Award nomination for best new artist.

“I’ll always be remembered for ‘The Morning After,”‘ she says. “It’s a great song. Thirty-three years later, I still get letters from people. They respond to the hopefulness of the song.”

Yet the song’s inspirational lyrics belied her own life, which was falling apart: Her mother was dying of colon cancer, and she was going through a divorce, suing her manager and wading in debt.

McGovern soon became a movie soundtrack darling, singing “We May Never Love Like This Again” for 1974’s “The Towering Inferno,” and the Oscar-nominated songs “Wherever Love Takes Me,” from the 1974 film “Gold,” and “Nice to Be Around” from the 1973 film “Cinderella Liberty.”

She also sang “Can You Read My Mind,” for the original “Superman” movie and the tune “Different Worlds,” which became the theme of the ABC TV series “Angie,” in 1979.

Career burnout

While her successes seemed impressive on paper, McGovern was disillusioned, feeling as though she was lacking control over her own career.

She never got to pick her songs or even the keys in which they were sung. Producers were muddling gems with bizarre orchestrations. Managers were ripping her off. And she was finding herself booked to sing at suburban lounges in front of bored businessmen. By the late 1970s, she simply dropped out.

But eventually, she returned – on her own terms.

New opportunities

She made her Broadway debut in 1981, replacing Linda Ronstadt in “Pirates of Penzance,” and quickly followed opposite Raul Julia in “Nine” and with Sting in “Three Penny Opera.”

Her recordings have ranged from contributing to “Amen! A Gospel Celebration” in 1993 to lending her voice for the 1995 Winnie the Pooh song album, “Take My Hand,” to a luscious collection of love songs in the 1998 Grammy-nominated “The Pleasure of His Company.”

Along the way, she’s belted out George Gershwin standards, sang with the Boston Pops, honored Mel Torme at the Hollywood Bowl, played a guitar-strumming nun in the “Airplane” movies, sang duets with Placido Domingo and even penned the children’s musical “The Bengal Tiger’s Ball.”

“To me, singing is basically a form of prayer,” McGovern says. “I get this great joy when I’m singing – whatever I’m singing. I missed it when I left it.”