After Years of Anticipation, Angela Lansbury Will Headline The Chalk Garden on Broadway

At long last, it looks like Grande dame Angela Lansbury will return to the stage in the first Broadway revival of Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden. The five-time Tony winner has been eyeing the project since 2012. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Rudin and Andrew Bryan will produce the show in the 2017-18 season.

Lansbury has earned Tony Awards for her performances in Blithe Spirit, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, Dear World and Mame. She was also nominated for A Little Night Music and Deuce. Lansbury most recently appeared on Broadway in The Best Man, starring opposite James Earl Jones; the two went on to headline an Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy in 2013. Her myriad screen credits include Oscar-nominated performances in The Manchurian Candidate, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Gaslight, as well as Murder, She Wrote, for which she received 12 Emmy nods.

The Chalk Garden follows a grandmother who tries to find a suitable governess to look after her disturbed granddaughter, Laurel, who is more concerned with exposing the sordid pasts of her potential caregivers.

The play originally opened on Broadway in 1955 and starred Gladys Cooper and the late Marian Seldes (whom Lansbury starred opposite in Deuce). It received five Tony Awards nominations including Best Play. The story was adapted into a feature film in 1964 starring Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills.