Angela Lansbury - Alternative/Punk Superstar

[Smaxie]

Posted: 1/13/06 at 9:26pm

As I was programming the studio cast recording of Angela Lansbury's 1971 road closer Prettybelle on my iPod - (Shut up! You think I can't hear you scream 'FAG!' through the internet?) - I was delighted to find that for the 'Genre' setting, the iTunes database selected "Alternative & Punk". Now, I know Prettybelle is a wild show, but it's delighting me no end to have Angela Lansbury listed as an Alternative/Punk artist on my iPod. I'm keeping it that way. Well, I thought she was pretty slammin' in Sweeney and the '83 Mame revival.

Anyway, since we're on the subject...any other fans of Prettybelle? Anyone actually see it?

Updated On: 1/13/06 at 09:26 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/13/06 at 9:28pm

Very cool!

Updated On: 1/13/06 at 09:28 PM

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 1:18am

Don't be ashamed of putting a rare angela recording on your Ipod....she is amazing. I cried when I met her.

[Urban]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 1:42am

Sweet. I am going to purchase an iPod myself in a couple of weeks, and now I want to plug in my version of "Prettybelle" just to see that as well.

PS, nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to "Prettybelle", it was an extremely facinating and forward musical for its time. I can understand why it failed since the topic matter in question just didn't work in 1971, but if it was around say... when the finally recorded the album...
Updated On: 1/14/06 at 01:42 AM

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 1:45am

I love this thread--I would have been just as amused by this as you. Love Angela Lansbury, though she's not what one would typically associate with punk.

[lvpblues]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 1:52am

"When I'm Drunk, I'm Beautiful" is one of the most fascinating eleven o'clock numbers not heard on a Broadway stage. And I also enjoy "You Never Looked Better" and "I Met a Man."

The score has lots to enjoy and Angela is, naturally, in top form.

And with its subject matter, it is quite easy to see why it wasn't the dynamite success of 1971...

[Smaxie]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 7:30am

I know that "You Never Looked Better" never actually made it onstage. It was written to go into the show in New York, but of course, the show shut in Boston. Also found out that Jule Styne wrote the lyrics for the male chorus that open the song ("Poor Leroy's gone to heaven...").

Meanwhile, if Lansbury is Alternative/Punk, I can't wait to see how iTunes classifies Karen Morrow. Probably 'Speed Metal' or 'Reggaeton'.

Updated On: 1/14/06 at 07:30 AM

[OOTI2004]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 12:28pm

I don't know anything about Prettybelle, so I was just wondering what it's basically about.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 12:31pm

Lol, I noticed the same thing Smaxie. I love me some Prettybelle.

Also Alternative/Punk according to itunes:

Merrily We Roll Along
On Your Toes
Seesaw

Also, they claim Kander and Ebb wrote Applause. Who knew?

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 12:33pm

TO A SMALL DEGREE was from Prettybelle, right?

Stunning piece.

[pengwendolyn]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:09pm

This is my shock factor. Angela Lansbury... as in 'Murder She Wrote' Angela Lansbury... was in a musical?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:14pm

Um...you're joking right? She was in tons of musicals.

Angela Lansbury won 4 Tony Awards for her work in the MUSICALS Dear World, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and Mame.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:19pm

Is this the show with the song "When I'm Drunk I'm Beautiful?" It if is, where the hell do you get the recording?

[pengwendolyn]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:21pm

*cough* I stopped paying attention to her after I stopped watching Murder She Wrote, I remember hearing that she was in something... but I couldn't remember what. Ah, that's amazing.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:22pm

Yes, that's from Prettybelle.

The cd is long out of print. Amazon's marketplace has it for 30 bucks, which is a pretty good deal. Usually it's about 50 bucks.
Prettybelle

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:24pm

Her stage work was all before Murder She Wrote. Lansbury was a huge musical theatre star in the 60's/70's.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:24pm

Yes, she is one of the biggest theatre legends of all time. Couldn't you tell she did some sort of work on Broadway from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks?"

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:37pm

I have the LP of PRETTYBELLE.
It is pretty "punkish" in some of the themes.
I enjoy it though. I might have to snap up that CD.

It is so strange how insulated the Broadway World really is. Before I started really getting into it I also had no clue Lansbury (or Jerry Orbach) were huge stars on The Street.

[Sluggy]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:50pm

Could someone give a brief synopsis of the "Prettybelle" storyline, please? Thanks!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 2:52pm

"Prettybelle Sweet is a manic depressive alcoholic schizophrenic in a Southern asylum, here telling her life story and her discovery of the benefits of ‘therapeutic rape’ after the death of a loathsome husband (he comes back to life)"
Prettybelle

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 3:04pm

OOTI2004, Prettybelle is about an institutionalized Southern widow with bipolar disorder, multiple personalities and a drinking problem who learned after her small-town sheriff husband's death that he was a racist murderer who used his badge and his gun to terrorize the Mexican and black populations in their town. Her response? To make amends by having sex with as many of the town's Mexican and black males as she can, what she calls "therapeutic rape", as BobbyBubby said above. Prettybelle tried out in Boston at the same time Sondheim's Follies was on the road there; I can't imagine a worse place for Prettybelle to try out!

Pengwendolyn, you should RUN, not walk, to get the dvd of SWEENEY TODD with Lansbury and George Hearn. Then you'll get an idea as to why she's idolized in the theater community!

Updated On: 1/14/06 at 03:04 PM

[Magicupoursleeves]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 3:26pm

Oh wow, um.......that sounds interesting

Question about the "therapeutic rape" - Is she actually raping them or is it just an expression?

[Flahooley]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 3:44pm

I L-0-V-E PRETTYBELLE.

Angela Lansbury is so adventureous when it come to selecting musical theatre roles. Neve played it safe.

PRETTYBELLE is offensive, odd, energetic, tuneful, entertaining and NEVER NEVER dull.

If you get a chance, read the original novel. It is just as crazy.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:01pm

She really is.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/14/06 at 4:01pm

I'm gonna put Prettybelle on when I get home. I haven't listened to it in a long time. I forgot how much I love it.