What roles Angela Lansbury could still play on stage? - Page 2

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 7:55pm

Random, Lansbury was generally a supporting actress but Mirror was a theatrical release (Columbia), she was the star of Bedknobs and of course there was Murder She Wrote.

And of course one doesn't have to have been a movie leading lady to have a major late career starring role in a film, as stage stars whose films careers were generally restricted to secondary roles Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy), Edith Evans (The Whisperers), and Peggy Ashcroft (like the New York Film Critics who awarded her best actress (as they did for Evans in The Whisperers btw), I'm of the opinion that Mrs. Moore in Passage to India was a leading role) have proven.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 8:02pm

Thanks, henrik. I'm mortified to confess I don't know that play. And I should have qualified my post by acknowledging that SOME roles can be played as 60 or 80, depending on the interpretation. The Nurse in ROMEO AND JULIET, for example.

So it's conceivable that Streep and Lansbury would both be up for the same role, but I think it unlikely they would be in direct competition at the same time. The way the part is conceptualized would make one or the other right. (Competition would be even less likely for a film.)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 8:05pm

EDIT: You also have to remember that Lansburies agent for most of her life was her husband Peter Shaw, she took off some major time to care for him. A time where she could have had the reassurgence of popularity like Dench, Redgrave, and Smith as that's when there resurgence was occurring. That and a sick agent isn't going to be able to do his best work for you.

IIRC, the earlier breaks in Lansbury's career were taken to care for her son, who suffered from drug addiction. When Lansbury discovered the problem, she packed the entire family off to Ireland for a year or more. (This would have been between MAME and GYPSY, I believe.) It was well reported at the time.

Her breaks to care for Peter came in the last decade or two, I believe. I admit I have no inside knowledge and am relying on my memory of press reports.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 8:09pm

No problem, Gaveston. As you can tell by the fact that Estelle Parsons took over for Deanna Dunagan and now the movie is going to Streep, who I take it will play the role older than she is, there is an age spectrum here.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 2/19/12 at 4:22pm

I appreciate the correction, henrik. I don't know how many roles present that much flexibility, though of course some roles have changed over time. Williams said Blanche was 25, but from the movie onward, she has been played as 40 or thereabouts. This makes sense, since we no longer think of a woman as in dire straits just because she isn't married by 25. (On the other hand, I saw the hugely talented Ellen Geer play the role at 60 and that just made Blanche seem like a crazy bag lady, despite the considerable skills of the actress.)

What's really sad and maybe it's just me, but I have a really hard time thinking of good roles for actresses over 60, at least in plays of the last 40 years.

Updated On: 2/19/12 at 04:22 PM

[Will42]

Posted: 2/19/12 at 4:38pm

'What's really sad and maybe it's just me, but I have a really hard time thinking of good roles for actresses over 60, at least in plays of the last 40 years.'

Unfortunately, it's the truth. Take almost every play or film, there are at least dozen roles for men and 1 or 2 for women. That's why actors have no problems finding great roles even in their 70's or 80's while most of actresses out there would be lucky to get a supporting role in some TV show once they hit 50.

[fflagg]

Posted: 2/19/12 at 11:45pm

Big Edie in "Grey Gardens." Would love to hear her do "Jerry Likes My Corn."

[AnythingGoes2]

Posted: 2/20/12 at 8:44am

Far too small of a role and it would never happen... The Bird Woman in Mary Poppins...

[Will42]

Posted: 2/20/12 at 1:40pm

That would've been an awesome role for her.
She was in talks to join the West End revival of Pygmalion as Mrs. Higgins apposite Rupert Everett, but the deal fell apart and the role went to Dame Diana Rigg instead. Too bad, Lansbury would’ve been great in it.

[Will42]

Posted: 2/26/12 at 4:41am

There is an old play called The Curious Savage that centers around a woman whose husband recently died and left her a fortune. It's a great showcase for an older actress and Lansbury would've killed it.

[Will42]

Posted: 2/26/12 at 4:41am

There is an old play called The Curious Savage that centers around a woman whose husband recently died and left her a fortune. It's a great showcase for an older actress and Lansbury would've killed it.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/26/12 at 10:22am

Rosemary Harris has had two recent Broadway triumphs with The Royal Family and The Road to Mecca, both of which its easy to imagine Lansbury having done instead.

Be that as it may, I would much prefer to see her take over from Nina Arianda in Venus in fur.

[staunchcharacter]

Posted: 2/27/12 at 2:57am

I adore the idea of Mrs.Lansbury playing Big Edie! I could actually see her doing it too. Maybe if they finally take the show (or at least mount a new production) on the west end, she could garner herself a long overdue Oliver award?

[Rudy2]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 3:29pm

I agree re: Harris, who is a jewel in the otherwise stiff "Road to Mecca."

Angela would be terrific in "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" (or "Boom!")

[Broadwayhunk]

Posted: 3/5/12 at 11:57pm

How about Nanny in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/6/12 at 12:32pm

some of these may have been mentioned before:

Lily Mortar and Amelia Tilford in The Children's Hour
Hecuba in The Trojan Women
Dr. Ashford in Wit
Emily in Wings
Mrs. Malaprop
Prism
Woman in The Chairs
Mephistopheles
Fairy Godmother

Trouser roles:
Duncan
Lear
Polonius
Falstaff

Interesting that a woman who for so many years read older - enough to play the only nominally younger Laurence Harvey's and Joan Plowright's mother - should be so youthful in her 90s. Whoops, I mean approaching them.


Updated On: 3/6/12 at 12:32 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/6/12 at 1:15pm

Mrs. Fisher in the new musical of Enchanted April (or in the play)

in other plays from Brit classics:
Mrs. Moore in A Passage to India
Charlotte Bartlett and Eleanor Lavish in A Room With A View
Mrs. Havisham in Great Expectations
Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice

And finally Madame Desmermortes in Anouilh's RING ROUND THE MOON, which not only seems due for revival, but was originally the sophisticated comedy Sondheim thought of musicalizing before he instead settled on Smiles of a Summer Night.



Updated On: 3/6/12 at 01:15 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 3/6/12 at 4:19pm

Carrie Watts in Trip to Bountiful.

(Although it would be impossible to top Geraldine Page's Carrie in the motion picture. One of the most astonishing performances ever captured on film.)

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/6/12 at 4:35pm

^nice!

[Will42]

Posted: 3/14/12 at 2:42pm

Oh, and of course she could very well reprise the role of The Madwoman of Chaillot from Dear World since the Countess Aurelia supposed to be in her 80's.