She followed this with a performance as Sybil Logan in "In the Cool of the Day" (1963) – a film she renounced as awful – before appearing as wealthy Isabel Boyd in "The World of Henry Orient" (1964) and the widow Phyllis in "Dear Heart" (1964). Her first appearance in a theatrical musical was the short-lived "Anyone Can Whistle", written by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim. An experimental work, it opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway in April 1964, but was critically panned and closed after nine performances. Lansbury had played the role of crooked mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, and although she loved Sondheim's score she faced personal differences with Laurents and was glad when the show closed. In 1965 she appeared in a second-season episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." television series as a marvellously flamboyant and wealthy actress. She appeared in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), a cinematic biopic of Jesus, but was cut almost entirely from the final edit. She followed this with an appearance as Mama Jean Bello in "Harlow" (1965), as Lady Blystone in "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" (1965), and as Gloria in "Mister Buddwing" (1966). Despite her well-received performances in a number of films, "celluloid superstardom" evaded her, and she became increasingly dissatisfied with these minor roles, feeling that none allowed her to explore her potential as an actress.