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| STUFF OF ARTHURIAN LEGEND By MICHAEL RIEDEL April 29, 2009 -- BEA Arthur seemed the very definition of a tough showbiz broad. Tall, astringent, imperious -- she looked like someone who didn't suffer fools and could cut them down with a withering look or a well-aimed barb, delivered in that famous contralto. And it was, for the most part, all an act, says her close friend of more than 40 years, Angela Lansbury. "Bea was absolutely the antithesis of the characters she portrayed," Lansbury says. "She was sensitive -- really, really sensitive -- and self-conscious. But she covered it up by becoming this deep-voiced comic. "That voice went ahead of her all the time, giving people the wrong impression of toughness and an overbearing attitude. She wasn't like that at all, but -- and this is a real gift -- she knew how to present herself onstage. She came out and said: 'This is who I am, this is how I talk. You either buy me or you don't.' " The act worked brilliantly. Arthur, who died last week at 86 after a long battle with cancer, became a television icon, first as the fierce and funny "Maude" and later as the sharp-tongued Dorothy on "The Golden Girls." But for musical theater fans, she'll always be remembered as Vera Charles, the hard-drinking, insult-hurling stage diva in "Mame." Both Arthur and Lansbury, who played the title role, won Tony Awards in 1966. They stopped the show night after night with their duet, "Bosom Buddies," Jerry Herman's acid anthem to friendship. Vera: Though now and again I'm aware that my candid opinion may sting . . . Mame: Though often my frank observation might scald. I've been meaning to tell you for years you should keep your hair natural like mine. Vera: If I kept my hair natural like yours, I'd be bald. "That song landed the first time we did it for an audience," Lansbury recalls. "They just screamed and yelled and carried on. It was one of the numbers that made 'Mame' a great success. We reprised it for years all over the world." During the run of "Mame," Arthur, who was born Bernice Frankel in New York City, gave an interview in which she revealed the "sensitivity" behind her intimidating façade. Gene Saks, her husband at the time, was directing the show. He'd directed Arthur once before in a play and, she told a gossip columnist in 1966, the experience was "terrible. We survived it, but I said, never again. In fact, I wanted to retire." After auditioning many actresses for Vera, Saks "came to me with tears in his eyes and said he needed me," she recalled. "Once he got me, he bullied and bossed and I felt like quitting until I discovered he was taking out on me things he couldn't take out on anyone else without demoralizing them. "I was his whipping girl, so we had that out, and really, I suppose, it was a test of our maturity that we could survive." (They divorced in 1978.) Lansbury and Arthur, who hadn't met before "Mame," became close friends, and when Lucille Ball was cast in the movie version instead of Lansbury, Arthur was upset. "Bea had to do the movie because her husband was directing it, and she felt she owed it to him," Lansbury says. "But she did not want to do it. She said that publicly. "I believe she knew that it was our chemistry that helped put the musical over. A lot of people have played Mame and Vera all over the place. But our original performances sealed the success of the show." Arthur, who lived in Los Angeles, was too frail to make the trip to New York to see her friend play Madame Arcati in "Blithe Spirit," a performance for which Lansbury may win her fifth Tony Award. "I just had a note from Bea a couple of weeks ago, along with some lovely flowers," Lansbury says. "She wrote: 'It's warm here. Time to come home.' " michael.riedel@nypost.com |
