Angela Lansbury admits to using an earpiece prompt in BLITHE SPIRIT

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 8:56pm

The stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury, for instance, said in an interview this week that she used an earpiece to stay on cue during her Tony Award-winning turn in Blithe Spirit on Broadway last season.

Its not something you ever want to do, but if were going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, were going to ask for some support if we need it, said Ms. Lansbury, 84, who is set to star this winter in the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/theater/29actors.html?_r=1&ref=theater

Well it was true.....

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:01pm

Angela is using performance enhancers!!

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:43pm

Hey, it's better than the large glowing teleprompters used on Broadway by Kelsey Grammer in MACBETH, etc. where it is clear the actor has no INTENTION of learning all the lines, not using an earpiece as a back up used in case of a slip-up so as to not disappoint the audience or interrupt the mood of the play.

And Angie just wows me with her classiness EVERY - SINGLE - TIME. She is a TRUE legend.

P

[NYadgal]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:45pm

And Angie just wows me with her classiness EVERY - SINGLE - TIME. She is a TRUE legend.

I SO agree!
I have adored every single performance of hers that I have had the good fortune to see!

Updated On: 10/29/09 at 09:45 PM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:48pm

"“In the early days of theater, there was a ‘prompt corner’ with a person ready to throw the line to any actor,” Ms. Lansbury recalled. “In the electronic age, some 80-year-old performers wear earpieces. And all of us lose ourselves in a play at moments. Laurence Olivier did at the height of his career. This is part of theater.”"

So true, Angie, so true!

P

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:00pm

And I will still pay my heard earned money to see Angela Lansbury in a show. Every. Single. Time. You go, girl!

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:02pm

I wonder if she'll use one in ALNM? I feel like Armfeldt has fewer lines than Arcati, but she does have a very wordy 5 minute song.
Updated On: 10/29/09 at 10:02 PM

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:09pm

I loved it when people were so offended last spring when the whole earpiece rumour came about. I think they made a bigger deal about it than Angela did!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:12pm

Can they prompt song lyrics? I still don't quite understand how someone could be off stage feeding lines to an actor and staying perfectly on cue. I would imagine that creating pauses in the action, but I guess that doesn't happen.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:13pm

I'm 25 and I don't know if I could make it through "Liasons", let alone Armfeldt's track, 8 times a week! And who knows if Steve might give her something new to sing, perhaps in the 2nd act (perhaps "Silly People"?).

It's a deceptively difficult role... she is much like the Emcee in CABARET in that she almost controls the events of the evening, or at least steers or guides them. AND explains them.

P

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:37pm

she does have a very wordy 5 minute song.

...in which she repeatedly gets to say "Where was I...? Where was I...?"

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:54pm

LOL @ PalJoey

Well, it's classy of her to admit it. I'm sure she'll use one for ALNM. It's really not a big deal. It's not like she's being fed all of her lines. It's a prompt if she gets lost.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:56pm

Several years ago I was in the audience of a concert that Patti LuPone was filming for PBS. At the back of the theater was a teleprompter with all the lyrics and all her banter. I should have yelled out her punchlines before she did. Then I would have been on PBS.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 11:58pm

I agree she's incredibly classy. Seeing her command that stage in BLITHE SPIRIT was such a joyful experience. I am looking forward to seeing her in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.

[musicman_bwayfan]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 11:58pm

I'm glad she used an ear piece.

Matthew Broderick called out for his lines from a prompter in the front row of the new off Broadway show he's starring in at least 10 times the other night. He actually read a monologue that he didn't finish memorizing...a temporary fill in read from the script the whole show since he was cast within the past week...the show was not ready to start previews....

[lakezurich]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:12am

Who cares? She was absolutely BRILLIANT!

[Dre2387]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:26am

I heard about that too, after I had seen the show. Could not have been able to tell at all. :) she is brilliant.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:31am

Heck. These have been around for decades -- Mary Martin famously used one for the 1987 flop tour of LEGENDS. Its also a regular apparatus used on TV soap operas.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:32am

It's excusable for the 84-year-old Lansbury to be prompted, especially in such an unobtrusive manner.

But Broderick has no excuse to be shouting out "Line?" in a performance.

[BrianS]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:54am

^^ couldn't agree more ^^

[Neverandy]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 1:01am

I believe that I was the one who broke the news back in march about Angela's earpiece. Man did I get flamed!

[jo]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 1:30am

At the end of the article --

>>>This season “A Steady Rain” is one of the most dialogue-driven plays on Broadway, with the actors Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig — who have extensive experience in the theater, not just movies — shouldering all 90 minutes of dialogue. A spokesman for the show said this week that neither man used prompts. Still, Mr. Jackman said in an interview in August that the amount of memorization was a tall order and that he and Mr. Craig even tossed a ball back and forth while running their lines.

“I hope we won’t have to use cue cards,” Mr. Jackman joked, then added, “It’s a slog to learn the whole script, but there’s no other way to do it.”<<<

Having a reknowned thespian using ear prompts due to age is something I would trade off rather than miss their talents onstage...but for younger stage actors, maybe they should have more focus and discipline. As witness the case of Jackman and Craig, who alternate with very long monologues and exchange occasional dialogues in the whole of 90 minutes of the show.

[ElizabethAngela]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 9:05am

I don't care that she wore an earpiece. I don't feel it makes her any less of a professional. I'm sure when she was much younger and in some of those musicals â?? Mame and Gypsy â?? it was all memory and no prompting. I don't think they probably even did prompting back then. When it came to Deuce, I'm surprised she didn't use an earpiece. I don't think she must have, because in an interview (when she and Marian Seldes were on Theatre Talk) both of the ladies talked about how they would sometimes forget a little, but each of them were able to help the other. Really, I don't see why the fact that she wore an earpiece for Blithe was even put in the news at all. How is it newsworthy really?

Besides, I feel that song lyrics are easier to memorize anyhow. I'm planning on coming out to NY again so I can see her in "Night Music!" I'm really looking forward to seeing her singing "Liaisons." And I can't wait to see her costume. She'll probably wear a wig also. I know she'll be beautiful.
Updated On: 10/30/09 at 09:05 AM

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 2:49pm

Kelsy Grammar did MACBETH? Ugg. Who's awful idea was that?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:07pm

Even with the earpiece, she was flubbing lines and stepping on other people's lines the night I saw BLITHE SPIRIT.

Love her, of course, but maybe after a certain point retirement is just the best policy?