Angela Lansbury, Good Actress With Sondheim

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Angela Lansbury, Good Actress With Sondheim

Angela Lansbury, who received her fifth Tony earlier this year, is set to receive Signature Theatre's Stephen Sondheim Award next spring.

After her first stage performance, in 1964's "Anyone Can Whistle," with a score by Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim himself called her performance "a gift to the musical theater."

"Anyone Can Whistle" only ran nine performances, but Lansbury was just getting started.

She's won Tonys for a revival of "Gypsy" and in the original production of "Sweeney Todd" and provided the voice of the Giant in the 2007 production of "Into the Woods" at Signature.

She is set to return to Broadway in December for a revival of Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" with Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Signature Theatre has produced 18 works related to Sondheim, which is the most of any U.S. regional theater. They inaugurated the award this year by giving it to its namesake.

The award is given to "individuals who have achieved success interpreting, supporting and collaborating on Sondheim’s music works."

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Mrs. Lovett Plays the Tuba?!

Gina Wilhelm Actress


Last night I was sitting with some actor friends who happened to be eating meat pies, and we discussed the fact that Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd is one of those characters I would love to play and be good at.

Today I learned that in the current tour of Sweeney Todd (hitting Fresno, CA, this Wednesday), the cast is the orchestra, and the actress who plays Mrs. Lovett plays the tuba in the "pit!" Now it's really the part I was meant to play!

Gina Wilhelm Actress