Angela Lansbury In ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ Coming To Theaters

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: Angela Lansbury, the triple threat who took on the iconic role of Daisy in the 2013 stage play Driving Miss Daisy, is heading to a movie theater near you, starting today. Back in 2013 Lansbury and James Earl Jones took on the roles that made Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman truly iconic actors.

If you missed Lansbury and Jones’ performances in Driving Miss Daisy on the stage, odds are you can check it out today, as the theater production is having a limited engagement in 500 movie theaters across the globe.

Screenvision and Broadway Near You have decided to come together to bring the Pulitzer-Prize winning Driving Miss Daisy to over 500 movie theaters throughout the month of June. The theaters that will play the theater production starring Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones span across the United States and Canada.

Of the theater version with Angela Lansbury coming to cinemas, playwright Alfred Uhry said in a statement:

“Every playwright dreams of having a perfect rendition of his play last forever. I am blessed to have it happen for me with this production of Driving Miss Daisy.”

The performance that will hit the theaters was part of the 2013 tour in Australia. Lansbury, who has received five Tonys, was excited to play younger than her age at the time. Of the character, Dame Lansbury said that she wanted to “pull on the dainty gloves of the Southern matriarch” since seeing an earlier off-Broadway interpretation of Driving Miss Daisy back in 1987. Apparently when she met Uhry after the show, she told him how much she loved the piece.

Lansbury told an audience at a screening the UK that Uhry’s “aim was always to get me to do it.”

Of the performance coming to the big screen Angela Lansbury certainly didn’t mince words:

“Well, I think it works like gangbusters. One of the problems I would have said is lighting. If you noticed, in this particular instance, the lighting is all overhead, no front lighting at all, and this is very hard on us gals. We look like the back of cabs.”

She continued:

“I would quarrel with that, but there’s nothing you can do about it, because the play’s the thing.”

For the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy, Jessica Tandy won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In addition, the film also took home Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Makeup.

[Image via Bing]