ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Describe the entrance applause during the first preview performance.
ANGELA LANSBURY: It was stunning. It was incredible. Really, really, wonderful. Thrilling for me and totally unexpected. I didn't come back for that. I saw myself as a working actress coming back to play a role on Broadway. I didn't realize that people would be so pleased that I was there.

Do you get swarmed by theater geeks as you exit the stage door every night?
Yeah, we do. One of my drivers said to me, ''By God, you're like a rock star!'' You know, I'm constantly being stopped by young people who say, I watch Murder She Wrote. Or Mame, or Gypsy, or Sweeney Todd.

Is this the beginning of your return to Broadway? Or is it a one-off?
I'm not going to be working nonstop on Broadway! [But] I never say no to anything, never have. I'm not going to start now. I love music and I do enjoy the excitement of being in a musical.

Broadway hours can be tough. What your schedule like now versus when you performed in your earlier years?
You meet friends after the show, you go to supper...you don't stay out as late as you used to, you don't eat as much as you used to! You have to take great care of your body when you're working in the theater. It's a very singular life. Especially now that I'm alone — I don't have my husband with me anymore — which makes it much less fun.

What's a major difference between performing now and performing then?
In the days when I was doing Sweeney Todd, I was still pursuing a career. I am no longer pursuing a career. I have been enjoying my reputation, trying to continue to do good work, and to improve my own craft. Always looking for ways of doing that!

When you were first starting out, did you ever imagine you'd become Angela Lansbury, American theater legend?
Never. Never in a million years. In those days I was just a starving actress and I took whatever was proffered to me — I was a starlet at MGM. Although I was very well trained! I've had it all. I've had it in spades. It's been an incredible career. I don't regret one minute of it, and I'm thankful for every minute of it. I'd like to be able to do another great movie role. I don't want to just fizzle out. I'm going to hang on and hope that one day, one glorious final movie role would come along, for posterity. [Laughs] I love the early roles I played in movies like Gaslight. It was the first movie I ever did. It's remained in people's minds, and the fact that it has thrills me, now that I'm [nearing] 82 and people are recognizing that person in Deuce.

As a theater geek myself, I have to know — what is your favorite musical?
Gypsy! Musically, it's marvelous, and dramatically, an ace for an actress.

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