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knew I was a serious young character actress. I really wasn’t an orange queen,
and I wasn’t discovered on a drugstore stool. I came by my work honestly.”

DBJ: “How is the discipline of a Broadway actor different than that
required in the movies?”

AL: “The discipline of the theatre is far more stringent. The curtain
goes up at 8:00, and you’d better be there, and you’d better be ready,
because there’s a whole houseful of people who’ve paid their money and
are ready and willing and waiting to see you. You can’t just not show
up. In the movies, there were a lot of lady stars who were habitual
non-turner-uppers. Whole sets would be kept waiting while Judy
Garland, for instance, who’d be called for 9 in the morning, wouldn’t
even get to the studio until 11. If you’re a very big star, you didn’t get
much of a reprimand from the front office, although in later years I
Angela, as many of her early film think poor Judy did. It was very difficult for her.”
roles required her to appear: plain.

for musicals, really. I felt I Glamorized and going blonde for a
wanted to do them, but I really 1953 TV appearance.
didn’t know how, so it was
quite a long time before I made my musical debut.”

DBJ: “You were part of the MGM studio during what many people
call the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood,’ and of course you were exposed
to many of the best musical productions of that time. You said once
that people remember you in The Harvey Girls as the ‘girl who was
mean to Judy Garland.’ What memories do you have of the people
you worked with at MGM?”

AL: “Well, there were so many that, as Louis B. Mayer would refer to
it, it was his ‘stable of stars.’ The phrase was very apt, as he was a great
racehorse man, and believed that if a person had talent, then probably
the whole family did. Oddly enough, he tried to sign my whole family Finally, an opportunity to play Angela and Mame co-star Bea Arthur celebrate
to term contracts. Metro stars were the great stars, MGM was a great her own age (and look her most their sometimes-vinegary friendship in the Jerry
attractive): Broadway’s Mame
studio, and I was very proud to be part of those years. We were all one (1966), which won Lansbury her Herman song, “Bosom Buddies.”
big family.” first Tony award.

DBJ: “You hear that during
the time when the studios DBJ: “When you made the move to
were very powerful in guid- musicals like Mame, this seemed so totally
ing a career for a performer, different from the sort of thing you had
that it was a very regimented been doing before. Was it hard for you?”
existence.”
AL: “No, it was as if I had been, in my
AL: “Oh, absolutely true. If secret heart, preparing for this role all those
we went to a movie premiere, years. Let’s face it, I played some very
for instance, it was sort of disagreeable characters in the early movies
demanded that you go to the that I made. To have the opportunity to
studio, where they found play such a wonderfully rounded, whole
you a very beautiful dress woman as ‘Mame’ released me in a way
out of wardrobe, and that I wouldn’t have believed possible.”
dressed your hair. You Lansbury’s role as “Mame”
arrived at the premiere in a DBJ: “Sweeney Todd is a pretty grisly celebrated in a
studio limo, and they musical, yet you seemed to have so much Christopher Radko ornament,
arranged who would take fun with your character – a woman who created for Broadway
you; nothing was left to bakes people into pies after her barber Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
chance. That’s why everyone friend kills them.”
in the movie magazines One of Lansbury’s “mother” roles, as Elvis
looked so glamorous and Presley’s dithery mom in 1961’s Blue Hawaii. AL: “‘What I did for love,’ that was
wonderful. Somebody did it Elvis was just 10 years her junior. ‘Nelly’s’ motto. She believed in doing any-
for them.” thing to get the love of her man, and it was
also expedient not to waste good material!”
DBJ: “Was it quite a change for you going from the movies to
stardom on Broadway? Did you have difficulty being accepted?” DBJ: “The music in a show like Sweeney
Todd would seem extremely difficult for a
AL: “Well, there is sometimes a little hesitation in the minds of singer to master. How did you approach it?”
legitimate actors. To them, movie actors have a lesser reputation as true
students of the dramatic art, which of course is not true at all. I adapted As the title character’s cohort “Mrs. Lovett,” Angela
very quickly and was very kindly received by Broadway because I’d earned widespread acclaim (and yet another Tony),
managed to appear in some very special movies. I think one reason the for 1979’s Sweeney Todd. The artwork on this auto-
critics were quite ready to receive me on Broadway was because they graphed album cover is by Frank “Fraver” Verlizzo.

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