Exclusive: Angela Lansbury Reveals She Won't Return to Broadway in THE CHALK GARDEN

In a new interview this morning when asked about her planned Broadway return in THE CHALK GARDEN, Angela Lansbury told BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge exclusively that "I have decided against coming back to Broadway."

She went on to explain that "At my time of life, I've decided that I want to be with family more and being alone in New York doing a play requires an extraordinary amount of time left alone. I think that at my age, that I have to consider where I am and who I'm with. I think that a play is just a bit too much for me to handle at this time, so I am not going to do THE CHALK GARDEN. I'm very sorry to have to announce that, because I know that a lot of people are interested ... and it's such a good play. Certain things become self-evident, and to me it appears that I shouldn't get involved with something that leaves me on my own here in the city - chomping through the snow and doing all those things when you're doing a play. I'm feeling fine, my health is very good, but nevertheless I have moments where I realize that I'm not the person I was maybe 5 years ago, or 10 years ago. That's the truth of the matter."

It was previously reported that the legendary Tony-winning star would lead a revival of Enid Bagnold's THE CHALK GARDEN during the 2017-18 season. Lansbury has often talked of her desire to star in the piece, with reports indicating last year that she might bring 'GARDEN' to London's West End. Reported at the time was also that Scott Rudin will produce the Broadway production. No director or additional casting has been announced.

Premiering on Broadway in 1955, THE CHALK GARDEN follows a troubled 16-year-old who rids herself of her governesses by discovering dark secrets about their pasts.

Lansbury has enjoyed a career spanning nearly 75 years in film, stage, and television. Winner of five Tony Awards, she made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso. In 1960, she returned to Broadway in Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey. In 1964, she starred in her first musical, Anyone Can Whistle, and in 1966, she triumphed as Mame, winning her first Tony. She won three more Tonys for Dear World (1968), Gypsy (1974), and Sweeney Todd (1979). After a 23-year hiatus, she returned to Broadway in 2007 in Terrence McNally's Deuce. In 2009 she won her fifth Tony Award as Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. She also appeared as Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music (2010), and in Gore Vidal's The Best Man (2012). In 2013, she appeared in the acclaimed Australian tour of Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, with James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines, a production which was filmed for cinemas.

In March 2014 she again played Madame Arcati at London's Gielgud Theatre, for which she won the Olivier Award. Previous London appearances were in the RSC's production of Edward Albee's All Over at the Aldwych, Gypsy, and Hamlet.

She has appeared in over 60 films starting with Gaslight at age 17 (first Academy Award nomination), The Portrait of DorIan Gray (second Academy Award nomination), and The Manchurian Candidate (third Academy Award nomination). She was the voice of Mrs. Potts in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and more recently, she co-starred in Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee and with Jim Carrey in Mr. Popper's Penguins.

From 1984 through 1996 she starred as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote, the longest-running detective drama series in TV history, for which she won four of her six Golden Globe Awards. She is recipient of the National Medal of the Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors. In addition to her five Tonys, Olivier, and six Golden Globes, she has been nominated for eighteen Emmys and three Oscars, and in 2013 was awarded an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures. She was named a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II and was invested at Windsor Castle on April 15, 2014.