DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. In honor of the Tony Awards this Sunday, let's continue our celebration of Tony Award winners we love. Angela Lansbury delivered unforgettable performances for her starring roles in the Broadway musicals "Mame," "Gypsy" and "Sweeney Todd." Her work onstage earned her five Tony Awards, plus a lifetime achievement Tony Award in 2022. Lansbury, who was born in 1925, died in 2022 at age 96. And while a legend on the stage, she conquered other media as well.
She starred as Jessica Fletcher on the CBS mystery series "Murder, She Wrote" for 12 years. On film, she appeared in the 1944 movie "Gaslight" when she was only 19, and provided the voice of Mrs. Potts, singing the title song to the 1991 animated movie "Beauty And The Beast." In 1979, the Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd" swept the Tony Awards with eight wins, including best musical and a best actress award for Lansbury. The show was about a murderous barber in Victorian London. Lansbury played Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd's accomplice. She baked his victims into pies.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
TERRY GROSS: I wonder what the first things were they told you about it to explain what the show would be like.
ANGELA LANSBURY: Well, they took it for granted that I knew the legend, because coming from England originally, I know all about Sweeney Todd. When I say I know all about Sweeney Todd, I know that he was almost a Grand Guignol character that was sung about. And little doggerel rhymes were written about, you know, Sweeney Todd will get you if you don't watch out. He's a character almost like Jack the Ripper in English folklore. And he turns up and people quote his name all the time.
GROSS: This is the third musical that Stephen Sondheim had a contribution to. Of course, he wrote this. But he did the lyrics for "Gypsy," which you starred in.
LANSBURY: Yes. It's the third time I've worked with him, actually.
GROSS: Is he the kind of composer who will sit down at the piano with you and sing his songs for you to give you an idea of what he had in his mind?
LANSBURY: Absolutely. Steve always auditions all his own work. And the thing he loves to do when he has a new song, he wants you to come over and hear it. And he'll - when he's got a few, he'll say, come on over. I want to play you this song that I've written for you in such-and-such a place in the script. And, you know, I'll pop over to his house, and he'll sit down at the piano and he'll sing the song.
Kills himself laughing when he was playing "The Worst Pies In London." Can you imagine trying to play that and make all the sound effects and, you know, all the beats and so on, which are done with the dough and the rolling pin and all of that? He'd worked it all out. Every piece of business in that song, Steve had written. It was right there on the music. She swats the fly, she hits the dough, she pops her mouth or whatever she does, you know, at that moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE WORST PIES IN LONDON")
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) And no wonder, with the price of meat what it is when you get it. Never thought I'd live to see the day. Men'd think it was a treat, finding poor animals what are dying in the street. Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop, does her business. But I've noticed something weird. Lately, all her neighbors' cats have disappeared. Have to hand it to her, what I calls enterprise, popping pussies into pies. Wouldn't do in my shop. Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick, and I'm telling you, them pussy cats is quick. No denying times is hard, sir. Even harder than the worst pies in London, only lard and nothing more. Is that just revolting? All greasy and gritty. It looks like it's molting and tastes like, well, pity. A woman alone with limited wind and the worst pies in London. Ah, sir, times is hard. Times is hard
GROSS: I want to talk with you about the character that you play. Now, you had said that finding the character was left completely to you. And you went back to books written about Sweeney Todd and the original book to find out a little more about the character. Now, you manage in the production to convey simultaneously meanness and humor, an ability to be murderous with an ability to be extremely warm and friendly and huggable, lovable. And you have the audience on your side as you're participating...
LANSBURY: Yes.
GROSS: ...In these murders. What are some of the ways, do you feel, that you were able to convey all of that and have the audience with you like that?
LANSBURY: Mrs. Lovett is really a conglomerate of all of that knowledge that I have of English theater going way, way back. She is almost a choreographed character. She is so broad in her scope. The idea is that she can do anything. She can slit your throat, and you will love her as she's doing it because she does it with such a total childlike joy and amorality that anything goes.
Now, this is everybody's dream of a companion, somebody who will adapt instantly to anything you would like to expect from her at that moment. Now, that's what we all long for. Sweeney Todd, lucky devil, found the very one. Now, occasionally, she goes off on her own little tangent, such as when she confides to him that her dream in life is really to retire by the seaside. But if she didn't, and if he didn't provide her with the little house by the sea, she would still do anything in the world that he wanted. Why? Because she absolutely adores him and always did.
Now, these are all the things that I know about Mrs. Lovett. I have to try and sell you on the fact that this is the case about this old bag lady. But I do understand these things about her, and so that is what I am playing all the time. She is a victim of the gutter. She is on the edge of the establishment. Absolutely anything goes. The fact that they have no money and no food for the pies, the most obvious thing in the world to her is to utilize those poor fellas coming down the chute.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A LITTLE PRIEST")
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett) Well, you know me. Bright ideas just pop into my head. And I keep thinking.
(Singing) Seems a downright shame.
LEN CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd) Shame?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Seems an awful waste. Such a nice, plump frame what's-his-name has - had - has. Nor it can't be traced. Business needs a lift, debts to be erased. Think of it as thrift, as a gift, if you get my drift. No? Seems an awful waste. I mean, with the price of meat what it is, when you get it, if you get it.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd) Huh.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Good, you got it. Take, for instance, Mrs. Mooney and her pie shop. Business never better, using only pussy cats and toast. And a pussy's good for maybe six or seven at the most. And I'm sure they can't compare as far as taste.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Mrs. Lovett, what a charming notion. Eminently practical and yet appropriate, as always.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Well, it does seem a waste.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Mrs. Lovett, how I've lived without you all these years I'll never know.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) It's an idea.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) How delectable.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Think about it, lots of other gentlemen will soon be coming for a shave, won't they?
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Also undetectable.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Think of...
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) How choice.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) ...All them...
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) How rare.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) ...Pies
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) For what's the sound of the world out there?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) What, Mr. Todd? What, Mr. Todd? What is that sound?
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Those crunching noises pervading the air?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Yes, Mr. Todd. Yes, Mr. Todd. Yes, all around.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) It's man devouring man, my dear.
ANGELA LANSBURY AND LEN CARIOU: (As Mrs. Lovett. and Sweeney Todd, singing) And who are we to deny it in here?
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd) Ah, these are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett, and desperate measures must be taken.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett) Here we are now. Hot out of the oven.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd) What is that?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) It's priest. Have a little priest.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Is it really good?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Sir, it's too good, at least. Then again, they don't commit sins of the flesh, so it's pretty fresh.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Awful lot of fat.
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) Only where it's sat.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd, singing) Haven't you got poet or something like that?
LANSBURY: (As Mrs. Lovett, singing) No. You see, the trouble with poet is how do you know it's deceased? Try the priest.
CARIOU: (As Sweeney Todd) Mm, heavenly. Not as hearty as bishop, perhaps.
BIANCULLI: That was Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou singing "A Little Priest" from "Sweeney Todd." In 2022, Lansbury won her sixth Tony for lifetime achievement. She died that same year at the age of 96. The Tonys are scheduled to be televised Sunday night on CBS. Coming up, film critic Justin Chang reviews the horror films "Backrooms" and "Obsession." This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
