Auntie Angela

Mention Angela Lansbury’s name and many will think of Murder, She Wrote. Some will think of her warbling in Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast.

But fans of show tunes the world over will talk about her performance in the title role in “Mame,” even if they’ve never seen it. She performed it on the Great White Way for almost two years then went on the road with it.

Lansbury was an unusual choice, judging by this wire service story of March 27, 1966.

Angela Exercises For Musical 'Mame'
By WILLIAM GLOVER
Associated Press Drama Writer
NEW YORK — Angela Lansbury is limbering up like an athlete for another and, she hopes, more durable go at Broadway musical comedy.
"I just can't tell yet how much energy I'm going to need," she explains, "so I want to have plenty."
Miss Lansbury, who has romped quite a dramatic gamut over the years, reaches Broadway's Winter Garden May 24 in a show derived from the adventures of that incredible book-play-film heroine, "Auntie Mame."
To avoid confusion with all earlier incarnations, the new exhibit is titled plain "Mame." And, the star vows, the portrayal is going to be "completely different"—if she survives.
"The whole thing is being plotted very carefully so I don't have to keep running around out of breath," she says, ticking off an awesome assortment of chores. Besides taking part in 11 songs—a rare number for even an Ethel Merman or Mary Martin—Miss Lansbury's assignment includes dance variety from tango to Charleston and "about costume changes."
ONLY ONCE BEFORE HAS she essayed musical performance, in a fast flop two seasons back, "Anyone Can Whistle." Although she emerged from the debacle with good reports, a lot of testing was done before she got this new role.
"They first called me in last August," recalls Miss Lansbury, "and I think I was competing against every leading lady in the theater. The thing went on until the end of November."
Oddly, Miss Lansbury never saw any of her famous predecessors in the straight stage comedy. Rosalind Russell did it first on Broadway just 10 years ago, and the following parade there and in multiple touring troupes included .Constance Bennett, Bea Lillie, Sylvia Sidney and Eve Arden.
"That's all to the good—I'm going in like a clean sheet of paper. No one can say it's a carbon."
Jerry Lawrence, who along with Robert E. Lee wrote both the original play and the musical adaptation, figured Miss Lansbury could do it.
Another early supporter was Jerry Herman, “Mame’s” composer (who three years ago penned another little opus called “Hello, Dolly!”).
“Both of them wanted an actress — not a dancing cutie — so that Mame would come out a whole person,” continues Miss Lansbury.
Miss Lansbury, as a matter of record, did sing briefly in two films prior to “Anyone Can Whistle”—namely “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Till the Clouds Roll By.”
After “Whistle,” the energetic star “did a lot of big, fat movies—four or five” so that she could clear her calendar for this stage excursion. The Lansbury screen career began at age 18 (“Gaslight,” 1944) and she didn't do her first Broadway show until 15 years later. She confesses one mild reservation.
“I'm an early person except when I'm in a stage role,” says the lady who likes to rise by 7 A.M.
“The one thing I object to about being in a show is having to miss half a day. You can get so much more done in the morning.”

Lansbury received almost universal praise for her opening night performance. The Daily News’ Douglas Watt was a hold-out, basically saying Lansbury didn’t have the depth or ability to pull off a lead for the entirety of musical, and Bea Arthur stole scene after scene from her.

Earl Wilson’s column addressed some whispering at a New York City theatrical night spot.

As the tall, willowy, 41-year-old British-born blonde Angela Lansbury was being standing-ovationed as the greatest new star for her spectacular success in "Mame," there were a few dirty dogs around today who were muttering that her last show, "Anyone Can Whistle," was a fast flop.
And she was Carroll Baker's mother in the film "Harlow," another loser.
So maybe she was an accident altogether?
"Not at all," said Jerry Herman, composer of "Hello, Dolly!" as well as "Mame." He remembered her singing—and acting—from "Anyone Can Whistle."
"I suggested to Jerry Lawrence and Bob Lee that we get this lady, who was an actress who could sing," he said. There were those who thought that Lucille Ball should play it. But Herman preferred somebody less comedic. "I got together with this lady and taught her one song, 'It's Today,' And—she got the part."
AND THEY WERE asking in Sardi's this morning, whether any show had ever received a standing ovation before.
"Oh, I'm sure there have been some!" Miss Lansbury was saying to her husband, son, dtr. and mother, as she cavorted about in a blue Norwegian fox wrap and silver-and-gold lame gown.
"I'm not so sure," some oldsters were answering.
It was the biggest, maddest, wildest evening at the refurbished Winter Garden . . . in the crazy celebration party at the Rainbow Room they even “bravoed” the reading of a review . . . This is not to overlook occasional opinions that the show was not the greatest of all time. (I say this as a compleat reporter.)

As for Lucy getting the part, well, it happened. Further comment is best left unsaid.

Considering her monster success, she should have become another Carol Channing on the Great White Way. It didn’t quite happen. A $720,000 loss over 132 performances for her musical “Dear World” in 1969 didn’t help. Soon, she was filming “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” for Disney before heading alone to Germany for a film and then to Ireland to try to get her head together.

Judging by the rest of her career, she was able to do just that.