Angela Lansbury - Mdme Armfeldt in ALNM Revival- Page 2

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:25pm

"The Secret Garden" was a very long time ago and Daisy Egan is an adult now! Maybe she could be Petra...

Anyway, Neil Patrick Harris was great as Tobias, but Henrik needs a more "classical" sounding voice.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:28pm

Oh no! Did anyone see that show on BRAVO a few years ago -- it followed New York actors as they attempted to make it big -- Daisy Egan was one of them -- and they actually showed her at a voice lesson attempting to sing "The Miller's Son."

Sad to say, she's not another Andrea McArdle -- she didn't take her singing voice with her in the transition to adult.

She'll probably be great as Louise in GYPSY this summer though. That's a perfect role for her.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:33pm

If we can't have Angela as Madame Armfeldt, I would definately settle with ELAINE STRITCH.

Carol Channing would be great too...

But I want ANGELA!!!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:34pm

I doubt anybody would ever give Carol Channing the chance to do the part, but you know what? I bet she'd be fabulous. She is/was a much greater actress then most people have ever given her credit for.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:41pm

The part of Madame Armfeldt doesn't call for a singer, it calls for an actress. And Lansbury, Stritch and Channing are up there with the best.

They aren't the strongest singers, but by god can they sell a song...

[Justice]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:48pm

Yes, Hermione was no great singer...Neither are most people who play Desiree (Glynnis Johns, Sian Phillips)

It's the supporting characters that need to have fantasmical voices.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 6:59pm

Exactly.

Let's face it. Send in the Clowns is a terribly easy song, vocally.

But it's terribly difficult to perform it well....

[Justice]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 7:00pm

Carole Shelly would be PERFECT as either Desiree or Mme. Armfeldt.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/25/05 at 8:57pm

it would be delightful, but according to Ms. Lansbury, its not gonna happen. She doesn't wanna do theater any more, now that her husband has died. She said on Larry King that doing theater without her husband would be a very lonely endeavor.

I think a star who might be interested and who could indeed perhaps be amazing in the part might be Ms. Carol Channing.

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 12:09am

My Dream Cast:

Desiree-Bernadette Peters
Frederik-Mark Jacoby
Mme. Armfeldt-Angela Lansbury or Harriet Harris
Frederika-Jessica Grove
The Count-Marc Kudisch
Petra-Nadine Isenegger
Charlotte-Heather Lee
Henrik-Gavin Creel

[AngusN]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:16am

I TOTALLY DISAGREE. I think Angela Lansbury is one of the most over-rated performers. Her singing is terrible and her acting ability is very limited; she tends to play similar roles in everything she does, regardless whether she is playing a middle-aged-detective or an neurotic old woman.

[nystateomind04]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:51am

You think she acted the same in Murder She Wrote and Sweeney?

I don't remember Jessica ever going into mad rampages or dancing wild jigs, but maybe that's just me.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 11:07am

Angusn??? I suspect you did not see Angela Lansbury in GYPSY and in SWEENEY TODD. The performances were a billion miles apart.

Lansbury's MAME was glamorous and enchanting while her Mrs. Lovett was Dickensian, funny, frightening, buffoonish and pitiful. Her Madam Rose in GYPSY was controlled, intense and ultimately explosive. I think you would enjoy more exposure to Angela Lansbury performances, live, in a theater. Enjoy!

[Lucy Harbin]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 11:53am

Michael Bennett, I agree that at WALL TO WALL SONDHEIM, I was feeling a certain poignant mixture of thrills from Lansbury's performance along with sadness at seeing that she was frail enough that her days of performing anything more than one song at a benefit probably were over.

But.... BUT..... a part where she could spend most or all of the evening in a wheelchair.... where she would only have to sing one (non-vocally-taxing) solo and one part in an ensemble number (remember, the role was written for a 75-year-old actress)... I think she might still have that in her! Of course, as somebody else points out, she has already commented that she doesn't want to do any more theatre, so there would have to be a big change of heart for this to ever happen. But I think maybe Madame Armfeldt might be one role still within the realm of possibility for her- particularly because, while physically frail and clearly having a bit of difficulty keeping up with the intricate, rapid-fire "A Little Priest" (but you don't have to be elderly to experience that- Patti LuPone, also on book, got lost/lost her place more than once on the same song on Monday night), she was still COMPLETELY in command of her acting skills, her comedic genius, her timing, her presence.... all that stuff is still there.

What I'm saying is... nobody ever wants a situation like Cathleen Nesbitt in the MY FAIR LADY revival at ninetysomething, looking lost on stage and forgetting her lines every single night. If that's the case, much better that the actress had bowed out gracefully while still in command of her powers, so that audiences wouldn't have had that as their final memory of her. But Lansbury would not be like that.... on a role that was not too physically/vocally taxing (Mme. Armfeldt being the prime example), she could still be genius.

And AngusN, I echo the others who have heartily disagreed with you. It's fine if she's just not up your alley, but the four roles for which she won Tonys (Mame Dennis, Countess Aurelia, Rose, Mrs. Lovett) are about as dissimilar as characters can be. And on the cast albums it's clear how varied and different her performances of the roles are.

Since Lansbury will probably never do another show, let me throw another suggestion into the mix: Bea Arthur. Not only would she wring every laugh out of the lines, but she would absolutely not sentimentalize the character.

[BWAYboi_yes]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 12:23pm

Not really on topic, but I remember hearing an Angela Lansbury interview where they asked how she liked playing Mme Rose night after night and how other actresses said the role was so physically and emotionally draining that they barely made it... She paused for a moment and said something like, "Oh, I've heard that other people have had a hard time with the role; that they put so much of themselves out there and are totally drained by the end of a performance. Well, I have a confession- I was just acting." I love her.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 12:45pm

I say, give it to Bacall. She'd have the hauteur, and she's actually the perfect age (especially with Glenn, who's in her late 50s...and not my own choice for Desiree.)

I'm in the minority, I think Desiree needs to be played by a very funny lady. Not just some diva. People forget how charming and comedic Glynis Johns was. In some ways, the ladies that followed (Jean Simmons, say, whom I also saw) were pretty but bland in comparison. And the role is rather small, if you look at her stage time, to say nothing of the non-existent vocal demands. Every scene needs to land with great specificity, something the Jean Simmon approach fails to do.

Christine Ebersole would be in the Glynnis mold.

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 12:58pm

I love christine ebersole with all my heart, I sat beside her on a train trip to yonkers. She was so nice to me, i thought we'd have like a small talk thing, WE TALKED THE WHOLE TIME! lol, anyway, i don't think she's yet ready for desiree...like i said, i love her, but I see someone a little more "aged" in the role....meaning, young enough to have that WOMAN innocence, but yet the sophistication of a woman who IS getting along in years....thats why i say BERNADETTE PETERS....Peters is really one of those, you either like her or you don't ...i know a lot of people find her voice annoying, but i dunno, I think it's beautiful and unique.....I'd even go as far as Glenn Close a beautiful woman, young looking but yet aged as well...I think Johns set the mold of what desiree should be like and its up to the producers of the revivals to see that that mold is once again carried out