UPDATE with Scott Rudin quote: Five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury is heading back to Broadway this season to star in a revival of Enid Bagnold’s 1955 play The Chalk Garden. Scott Rudin is producing with Andrew Bryan. No house has been set yet, nor has any other cast, according to Playbill, which broke the news.
Asked for a sentence on why he was producing the revival, Rudin told Deadline: “I don’t need a sentence! Two words: Angela Lansbury.”
Lansbury, who is 90, was last on Broadway in 2012 for a revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. She also appeared as Mme. Arcati in the recent West End revival of Blithe Spirit, following a sold-out Broadway run.
The original production of Chalk Garden bowed in 1955 and was nominated for the Best Play Tony in 1956 before it closed after 182 performances. It centers on wealthy Mrs. St. Maugham, who is seeking a governess for her spoiled 16-year-old grandchild and finds one in the mysterious Miss Madrigal. A 1964 film version toplined Deborah Kerr, Edith Evans and Hayley Mills.
Lansbury told Playbill the play, which has been redone numerous times internationally but never on Broadway, has been on her wish list. “A lot of people knew I was angling to do it,” she said.
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