Sondheim and Lansbury talk about collaborating on “Gypsy,” “Sweeney Todd” “A Little Night Music”

What an absolute treat to read an interview with both Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury in New York magazine.

They have collaborated on some of the most successful Broadway productions in history including the original production of Sweeney Todd, the first revival of Gypsy and now a revival of A Little Night Music that just opened on Broadway that also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The 84-year-old Lansbury had a 12-year run on TV’s Murder She Wrote and before that, a thriving film career that earned her three Oscar nominations including best actress for The Manchurian Candidate. But her greatest creative successes have been on the Broadway stage where she has won five Tony Awards – including one for best featured actress in a play just last June.

Now she’s back in a musical, just where she belongs. Here are some excerpts from the interview with Miss Lansbury and Mr. Sondheim:

You didn’t work together again until the revival of Gypsy. By then, Miss Lansbury, you had carried major musicals—Mame and Dear World—and won two Tonys. You could say no to anything.
A.L.: And I did. When they asked me, I said, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding. No way can I dare sing that!” I’d grown up listening to Ethel Merman records.
S.S.:I never thought about the possibility of your being intimidated by the memory of Merman. … Ethel had one great strength: She knew how to play low comedy because it was in her bones. She knew how to do double takes. But Angie was brought up as an actress, so she had an entirely different take on Rose. Ethel was not one for analysis of character.
A.L.: I did a lot of research. But for the purposes of the show, which revealed only some aspects of Rose, I had to go with what the libretto said. Consequently, what I came up with was maybe a little bit obvious.
S.S.: No, I think you came up with Arthur’s Rose, which has nothing to do with the real Rose Hovick.
A.L.: Well, if you start messing it up with the real Rose, you’re in trouble.

When you next worked together, on Sweeney Todd, the character was something of both. And in a way, the tables had turned.
S.S.:This time, I had to audition for her.

A.L.: I was in Ireland when a woman called to say, “There’s a telegram here from New York from a fella named Harold Prince.” Hal said he wanted me to play the role of Nellie Lovett. I put down the phone and said to my husband, “Hmmm, all right, this show is called Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Then who is Nellie Lovett?”
S.S.:So I wrote half of her opening number, “The Worst Pies in London,” to show her. And because I wanted her to know that there was going to be some music-hall stuff, I wrote “By the Sea.”
A.L.: I understood Nellie immediately from those songs. This total London Cockney from the streets. I knew women like that—women who worked for us. Not women who were making pies out of people, but women with that wonderful jolliness and “don’t worry, I’ll fix it” attitude. That was riveting to me.
S.S.:I told her what’s fun about the characters is that the one who’s sympathetic is the morose, sullen murderer, while the one who’s good company is the real villain.

For the current revival of A Little Night Music, neither of you is creating a role in that sense. Still, the part of Madame Armfeldt, first played by Hermione Gingold, seems to have been written for someone like Angela Lansbury.
A.L.: Interestingly, Hal Prince originally approached me about playing her daughter, Desirée. I couldn’t because I was doing Gypsy. But Armfeldt has always been out there in the ether; it was a natural for me.
S.S.:After the run of Sweeney Todd Angie was really exhausted, what with the constant running around the stage and up the stairs. She said, “What I want now is a nice play where I sit behind a desk.” Last night, watching Night Music, in which she’s in a wheelchair behind a tray table all evening, I thought: Good for her—she finally got one.
Read more: Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury on a Lifetime in Theater — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/arts/theater/features/62635/index2.html#ixzz0ZdivcDOB