Entertainment

The best man & woman

Two of Broadway’s great treasures can be found on the stage of “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” — Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones.

Between the two are more than 150 years of big, juicy, theatrical stage acting. And you can see it in every gesture, every inflection. They don’t miss a joke, physical or verbal.

Lansbury plays the powerful head of a major political party’s women’s division. Her Southern gentility barely disguises a will of iron.

Jones plays the former president of the United States, a savvy political animal who rose to power from the dirt farms of Indiana. He’s dying but still spoiling for one last fight.

At Sardi’s the other day, sipping tea and sparkling water, they talked about their careers, their lives and the day they sat at Gore Vidal’s feet.

Lansbury
: I felt everything Gore wanted to say was there in the role as he’d written it. And I hoped that what I was going to bring to the role was what he wanted. But the odd thing was — and I didn’t quite understand what he was talking about — I said, “Gore, is it going to be OK?” And he said, “You’re so funny.” I said, “Oh? Where?” He said: “In ‘Murder, She Wrote.’ ” And that is the honest-to-God truth. I wondered, has he been listening to us?

This is the first time you’ve worked together. But have you known each other a long time?

Jones
: There was an event [in 2009] where playwrights brought a scene along and asked actors to do it. Alfred [Uhry, the playwright] asked us to do a scene out of “Driving Miss Daisy,” which we did, and that’s when we met.

I hear you’re doing “Driving Miss Daisy” in Australia next year.

Jones: Ask Alfred! We’re not supposed to talk about it.

Lansbury (out of the corner of her mouth): I’m packing!

It seems that almost every year both of you do something onstage. Do you ever think of retiring?

Lansbury: I think about it, and it’s so depressing I turn it off as quickly as possible. I really mean that. Life without theater, without acting, without the arts would be a tremendous loss to me. Even though I am of an age where most people would be saying, “Ta-ta for a while. I’ve been there, I’ve done it” — well, I still haven’t done it all. There’s more to do.

Jones: The only other thing I could do is contemplative. Talmudic studies. Deep Zen. But I’m not ready for that. I’m an only child. I’m a stutterer. I need the community I have in theater. I need communication with great writers.

You’re associated with iconic roles from popular culture: Jessica Fletcher and Darth Vader . . .

Jones: No, I’m not. I’m just special effects . . . David Prowse did all the work. He sweated in that costume. I just did the voice, and I’m supposed to get credit? I’m just special effects.

Did you feel that way when you were Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast” — special effects?

Lansbury: Well, yes, frankly. The voice goes before you. When people hear you speak — the general public, not the theatrical public — the general public say, “It’s Darth Vader!” And they say about me [in a high-pitched, working-class English accent], “Oh, it’s Mrs. Potts!” Children recognize us by our voices.

You’re both larger than life onstage. Are you aware of the impact of your physical presence?

Jones
: No. I’m aware I’m playing a big guy from Indiana raised on a farm. That’s the basis of what I’m giving. I was born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan. I know that kind of guy. They’re not into their bodies. Their body just happened along with their mind, such as it is. They’re very raw. I once had the great pleasure of meeting Harry Truman onstage. I was in “Sunrise at Campobello,” and he visited us after the show. He was up there clomping around on that set, trying to see how it helped us. I was inspired by that.

Lansbury: With me it stems from the sense I have of the person I’m portraying. The bigness and rudeness and her wide open way of going for the jugular. You can’t help but have a sense of physicality for a person like that. You just go for it.

Jones: On the first day of rehearsal, little Kerry Butler came in and hit the door in high gear. Then Jefferson Mays comes in, and he hits the door in high gear. And then this one [indicating Lansbury], she comes in, and she’s hitting the door in high gear, too. And I think, this going to be fun. Character acting at its very best the first day of rehearsal!

You get applause when you walk onstage and when your scenes are over.

Jones: What are they saying? Thank you? Thank you for the little treat?

Lansbury: They’re saying, well-done, well-done. They’re saying to us — you made it!

Jones: I egg ’em on. I do a little Jackie Gleason number on my way out the door.

Lansbury: Do you now? Well, don’t give me any ideas!

At your age, are there any challenges onstage?

Jones: I discovered something in the previous play I did, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” One day I was onstage . . . and I had a long speech. Big Daddy was a nonstop talker. And suddenly the windshield wiper just wiped everything off my brain. It was such a profound loss of the text. The stage manager said, “He’s having a stroke.” There was a doctor waiting for me the minute I got offstage. He tested the oxygen in my blood and took me right to the hospital. From that moment on I began to understand what memory is based on — oxygen. I purchased myself a little oxygen generator. Keep it backstage. If I’m close to that total wipe, I go right to the oxygen.

Angela, you used an earpiece in “Blithe Spirit.” Do you have one here?

Lansbury: I do, actually. We don’t use it. But it’s there. Simply for the reason that sometimes, and it must have to do with age, you just blank out on what’s coming next. Maybe I have an oxygen problem! I never thought of it that way. But, occasionally, you blank out. Now, with “Driving Miss Daisy,” that will never be a question because we have time.

Jones: And we’re locked into each other so closely.

You seem to have fun together. I think you’re going to enjoy Australia.

Jones (laughing): My wife is prepared for it.

Lansbury: Well, I don’t have any connections, sir!

As Sybil Thorndike said: What happens on tour, stays on tour.

Lansbury: That’s a good one. I like that. Isn’t that the truth!