This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bean Kooley, Professor of Television Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey,

sitting in for Terry Gross.

Next month, Angela Landsbury will receive a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.

She can add that to the Tony's she's earned already for such roles as the star of Maim,

portraying Mama Rose in a revival of Gypsy, and playing the pie maker Mrs. Love It in Sweeney Todd,

the demon barber of Fleet Street.

Both those latter musicals had lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and both were very juicy leading roles.

In Gypsy, Mama Rose was the ultimate stage mother.

And in Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Love It was running an unsuccessful bakery in London in the Victorian era

when she was inspired to team up with a local barber named Sweeney Todd.

He was a serial killer, intent on murdering many of his customers.

And in the song A Little Priest, Angela Landsbury, as Mrs. Love It suggests a particularly gruesome partnership.

He's piling up bodies, and she offers a uniquely advantageous means of disposal.

I mean, with the prize of meat, what it is, when you get it, if you get it.

Huh.

Good you got it. Take for instance Mrs. Monella Pie shop.

Business staff are better using our big pussy cats and toasts.

Anna Pussy's good for maybe six or seven left for most.

Anna Pussy will make her own comparison as far as types.

Mrs. Love It, water charming notion.

Angela Landsbury grew up in England and came to the US during World War II.

Her first role in a movie came at age 17, playing the maid in the 1944 film Gaslight.

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