Letters to the Editor: Angela Lansbury, the actress you really wanted to work with but didn’t
In an interview with People Magazine, Angela Lansbury said, “For the first time in my acting life, I didn’t feel I was being represented.” Lansbury was referring to the fact that the first time she recorded her Broadway show “Wicked,” she realized she wasn’t getting enough attention and was asked to appear on a television show along with Meryl Streep that was broadcast from the theater. She was also asked by the network to do a television movie, but her agent said that she would get much more of an “image” if she did a one-on-one show with a different actress. “They’re calling it ‘All About Angela,’” Lansbury said, referring to the show that aired in 1995.
If all of this hadn’t happened to Lansbury, I don’t think she would have received the career opportunity she has today. She would be a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” several times and would have been the regular actress on “Live from New York,” a New York-based television series hosted by Dick Clark, as part of the city’s bid for the Democratic nomination for president in the 1988 Presidential election. Also, she would have been a regular on “The Today Show,” on the ABC cable network, where Dick Schaap was the host and Robin Quivers was musical director.
I know how difficult it is to get such an opportunity to appear in a television show and I know how hard it was for Lansbury not to be invited to appear in one of the live shows hosted by Johnny Carson because he was her close friend. I also realize the other reason for doing the one-on-one show with a different actress was to preserve her image. She was already known for the role she had on Broadway with “Wicked” because the show was so popular