Signature Theatre to give Angela Lansbury the Stephen Sondheim Award

Angela Lansbury, the legendary actress, will receive the first Stephen Sondheim Award from Signature Theatre, the company will announce Thursday.

The honor reunites two old friends, as well as artistic talents who are acknowledged innovators in their disciplines and have each forged careers that cover 50 years of theater and music history.

"Angela Lansbury's first appearance on the musical stage was in a show called 'Anyone Can Whistle,' for which I wrote the score. That appearance was a gift to the musical theater, although perhaps not such a gift to her, since the show only ran for nine performances," Sondheim said in a statement, referring to his 1964 musical. "I am thrilled that Signature Theatre is helping me make it up to her by giving her the first Stephen Sondheim Award."

Lansbury, 84, has rarely stopped since then. She has won five Tonys, including ones for "Gypsy" and "Sweeney Todd" -- both groundbreaking works attached to Sondheim's name. And this month she is returning to Broadway in a revival of Sondheim's "A Little Night Music," co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. To much of the public, Lansbury is known for the 12 seasons she played Jessica Fletcher on "Murder, She Wrote," a role for which she won four Golden Globe awards.

Sondheim's long career took off in 1957 when he wrote the lyrics for "West Side Story." The works that followed -- "Company," "Follies," "Sunday in the Park With George" and "Into the Woods" among them -- cemented his status as the leading contemporary Broadway composer. The 69-year-old composer has won nine Tonys in his career; both he and Lansbury have previously received Kennedy Center Honors.

Signature has long been known for its stagings of Sondheim works. The Arlington-based company has produced 18 shows by the composer and, earlier this year, established the award in his name. The honor will be formally presented to Lansbury at a gala dinner next April.