Angela Lansbury opens in DEUCE May 6 after almost a 24-year absence from Broadway and her fans are thrilled. She and the venerable Marian Seldes share the stage for a full 90 minutes without intermission. No small feat for anyone to play 8 shows a week, let alone someone who's been in the spotlight for more than 60 years. My first theatrical experience with Angela Lansbury took place at The Winter Garden Theatre on a cold Friday night in December 1966. The show was MAME. My high school friend, Pat Sousa, and I had received a weeklong theatre trip to NYC as Christmas gifts that year. We saw CACTUS FlOWER, DINNER AT EIGHT, MAME, SWEET CHARITY, and THE ODD COUPLE. If memory serves me correctly, Marian Seldes appeared in DINNER AT EIGHT.
If you're lucky enough to have seen Angela Lansbury in MAME, you've experienced the joy of musical theatre and perfect casting. Who can forget Mame sparring with Vera Charles (Beatrice Arthur), or embracing Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell) after she learns how "to live," and Lansbury standing arm-in-arm among the chorus line, all dressed in top hats and riding habits, as they sing the show's signature song.
Not only did we see the most popular theatre hits of the day, we also met the show's stars---this involved a little amateur sleuthing similar to Lansbury's own Jessica Fletcher.
Surprisingly, getting backstage at the Winter Garden proved simple. We found an unlocked door leading from the house to backstage. Pat and I stood (along with one tall wooden ladder and a stagehand) in the middle of an otherwise empty stage while trying to figure out where to find the dressing rooms. You can imagine how two starry-eyed teens with dreams of being on Broadway ourselves attempted to act as if we belonged on that hallowed stage where real magic had just taken place. And then, quite magically, Jane Connell appeared. We gushed about how much we loved her and the show, she signed our programs, and we said that we wanted to meet Angela Lansbury. It's possible that we used the explanation, "we came all the way from Florida to see the show." This innocent plea--out of the southern-laced mouths of babes with freshly scrubbed faces--had worked for us earlier in the week at The Palace Theatre. My gushing had landed us in Gwen Verdon's dressing room.
Jane Connell escorted us across the Winter Garden stage, through the wings, and let the stagedoor manager know "they're with me." As we began making our way upstairs to the dressing rooms, Angela Lansbury descended (gaily talking with her son and daughter). Jane introduced us, Pat gushed, I don't remember saying anything,(I had done most of the gushing when meeting the aforementioned Gwen Verdon). Angela Lansbury, tall, gracious, and kind, signed her picture in my MAME souvenir program. I've kept all my autographed programs from that fabulous holiday gift.
Years later, I caught Ms. Lansbury in SWEENEY TODD and watched "Murder She Wrote" off and on---a favorite television progam of my Mother's. On one of my parent's trips out to visit, I took them up the coast to Mendocino, the small picturesque seaside town we see as Cabot Cove, Maine in Murder She Wrote's opening scenes.
Bravo to Angela Lansbury for sharing her extraordinary talent with us again.
DEUCE Plays The Music Box Theatre, May 6 through August 19, 2007
Tickets: www.broadway.com
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