Angela Lansbury interview for MAME with Dennis Cunningham (1983)

Oh cater and she is one of the very few true capitalist stars we have and the best part of all she's right here glorious words thank you very much but the heartfelt you can be sure of that I have to ask you after congratulating you and everybody and a special congratulations Jerry Herman because although I thought I knew ma'am as I was sitting there Sunday night I thought gee there's one hit right after another I didn't really realize isn't it astonishing exactly yes so a special congratulations then but to the whole cast indeed but a lot of people asked me after they say oh isn't meeting you isn't she wonderful why main why not something new well I think for the simple reason that name was my entrance to a Broadway career really in earnest in the musical sense and when you have a great vehicle like name you you don't just put it to bed forever you always say well one day I'd love to do it again and after all why not now this is a this is a time when we need a bit of man we need a bit of Christmas we need a bit of hope and we need something to enliven our view and and our attitude towards life and I think names a great anecdote to the doldrums and the recession and everything else I agree with that and I agree and while I was sitting there again watching and I thought gee although it's really not that old a musical I thought musicals really changed right after this I mean they beget musically you did Sweeney Todd oh yeah or a chorus line or musicals think they got edgier and a little more neurotic and a little more maybe adventurous but but the book musical old-fashioned in the best sense of the word there had to be one of the last of those even though it hasn't that long ago yes it just about was to be honest and even in those days that we first did it it was quite innovative the idea of choreographing the movement of the sets with the dancing with with the entrances into new scenes in that that was very innovative and of course today every show you see everything is choreographed and the curtain never comes down there is no curtain and everything just goes in and out and no stops and those scenes everything just slides and everything's on winches and it's it's I knew yourself as long as they're on this point twice leave the ground by some dangerous lengths at one point you're what - it was 15 20 feet off the ground yeah I am when I'm on the moon and I'm about I guess I'm about 15 feet off the ground and then when I'm on the we know the same with a little boy so we do we do we do some aerial work yes nonsense you know that brings up I don't want to bring I know I'll embarrass you if I call you a star one more time but what do you feel are the obligations of you as the leader let us say of of this or at virtually every show you've been in well you feel you have obligations yeah I have an obligation to turn up no III think that it's always helpful when you have a figurehead who everyone feels is interested and as enthusiastic about the project as they are and who really cares desperately about it well obviously I care otherwise I wouldn't put in so many hours that I do in the theater I love the theater I love working with an audience I love the sense of participation that I have with the rest of the cast and I mean that's the joy of working in the theater and if you love it you'll stick around and you you'll probably become a star I think it's a little more complicated than that but certainly you have to do those two things well I've talked to people who have worked with you in shows and they say that you really are the leader that you really set the pace and set the tone and say all right gang let's get to it let's pull it together in that sir I'm a hard taskmaster I really demand a lot of excellence from everybody but mainly for myself I don't think you can go out there and do half a show I don't think you can turn up and not be completely there and I really always have that sense of urgency and desire to just go out and win every time and I guess that's a failing in my personal makeup that makes me have to for it not win this shall we say but let's say do a good show constantly always you mention your love of the theater and yet really you started as far as we know I mean publicly in movies and had and continue to have as a matter of fact an extensive movie career when you were it seems to me that when you was a Dorian Gray or gas lighter both you were a child I mean are you saying that louder no no I I was I was separate or something you know at an Oscar nomination yeah but it was heady stuff not but I've had many careers it's interesting I I'm kind of a three faced woman in a sense you could say because I had a career in movies as you know and then came to Broadway and was played some rather sturdy roles you know and then a third career was suddenly musical theater and that of course is my great love because I love music music second directing is the thing that gives me the greatest pleasure to to be part of and to work in a musical background is great make all those transitions from movies than to being on the Broadway stage for heaven's sakes you've played in Hamlet played Gertrude with Albert Finney you've done serious deadly serious theater to make all those transitions I for one am astonished that you could do that well it all has to do with having a talent to a characterize I think and it doesn't matter whether it's couched in music or whether it's got some heavy drama or high comedy or low comedy I want to try everything and I want to do everything and I've been fortunate enough to have had a crack at a lot of various mediums of acting so I'm gonna try they're telling me we're out of time to ask you this one thing yeah you've done a television show which is yet to air with Laurence Olivier yes most exciting a talent for murder we just finished it just a few months ago it'll be airing I think this fall's top the talent for murder I pay an 80 year old woman in a wheelchair whether louise brooks wig and a fantastic makeup a whole different voice a whole new set of tricks I can't wait to yes and quite an actor oh I can't tell you it was it was a dream come true for me to work with it I look forward to that but right now Angela Lansbury in MAME at the Gershwin Theatre I heartily recommend it ladies

Channel: 1971FolliesFan

Views: 1,495

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: I6Lj5XRtcQU

Length: 6min 23sec (383 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020