Angela Lansbury To Reprise BLITHE SPIRIT In West End?

In a fascinating new interview with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West on the podcast program THE CONVERSATION, Broadway/Hollywood icon Angela Lansbury reveals plans to reprise her Tony Award-winning role of Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT in London's West End this Christmas.

"I am hopefully going to be going to London to recreate my role in BLITHE SPIRIT of Madame Arcati," Lansbury reveals.

Speaking of her recent DRIVING MISS DAISY tour partner James Earl Jones and his upcoming ventures as well as her own forthcoming plans coming to fruition now with the brand new announcement of a West End BLITHE SPIRIT: "We've both got long-range plans - which will take me almost to 90!" Lansbury says with a boisterous laugh.

"It's hilarious, really - I can't believe it! And, I don't in any way, shape or form feel that," Lansbury candidly shares of age being nothing more than a state of mind.

So, when is this proposed revival of BLITHE SPIRIT set to occur? Lansbury says, "Well, we could start working on the rehearsal period before Christmas and open after Christmas or we might not start until after Christmas in total. So, we'll see - but that has not been decided yet."

What theater in particular would she prefer to play? "I am very, very anxious if it is humanly possible to play the Theatre Royal Haymarket. That is a wonderful old theater - the finest theater in London. I want to play it - my mother played it when she was a budding actress in the 1920s, when I was a baby."

"That would be kind of a landmark moment for me," Lansbury says of the potential plans for the new production of the play at a theater with such a personal historical lineage.

Previously, it was rumored that Lansbury would soon star in a new production of THE CHALK GARDEN by Enid Bagnold although plans for that appear now to be on hold for the time being.

Lansbury addresses her early career and her thoughts on acting in general, also reflecting on her enduring TV legacy courtesy of MURDER, SHE WROTE and much more in the convivial, wide-ranging conversation, as well.

"When I play certain characters, people say, 'How could you be so evil?'," perhaps referring to her cannibalistic Mrs. Lovett onstage in SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET or her domineering mother-from-Hell in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE onscreen, Lansbury posits at one point, before asserting that she simply replies, "Well, I've observed it in others."

What wit!

And, speaking of Stephen Sondheim, Lansbury fondly recalls her many collaborations with Sondheim throughout her career, as well - ANYONE CAN WHISTLE to GYPSY to SWEENEY TODD to, most recently, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC on Broadway with Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2010.

"Stephen gave me my first chance, and that was in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE," Lansbury recalls. "I will never, ever be able to thank him enough for that - we are very close in respect to the fact that we did that first musical of his together," Lansbury opines.

"We are both over 80 now and we share those memories with tremendous warmth and happiness," she says of her relationship with the fellow legendary octogenarian.

Lansbury also discusses her recent run in a revival of Alfred Uhry's DRIVING MISS DAISY opposite James Earl Jones in a tour throughout Australia and how she has procured such impressive stamina.

"You have to have the stamina of an ox!" Lansbury amusingly comments of her work ethic.

As for career advice? Lansbury offers, "Never take anything for granted."

Additionally, check out my extensive 2011 InDepth InterView with Angela Lansbury, available here.

Listen to Angela Lansbury on THE CONVERSATION with Smiley and West below.