I had always resisted seeing it onstage as I had a lingering dislike of Rodgers and Hammerstein's canon which was probably as much to do with perception as anything else, I simply had not seen any on stage, only the film versions of their biggest shows: OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL, SOUTH PACIFIC, THE KING AND I and THE SOUND OF MUSIC. But after seeing Bartlett Sher's wonderful revival of SOUTH PACIFIC at Lincoln Center, I decided it was time to have another look at them - and here we are again in the safe hands of Sher with his Lincoln Center production now residing at the London Palladium, which has twice before been the home for the show.
What THE KING AND I has always been is a star vehicle: Gertrude Lawrence's agent contacted Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1950 to see it they could adapt a book about Anna Leonowens who had been a tutor to the children of the Siamese King Mongkut between 1861 and 1867. They were wary, not seeing how they could make the episodic book into a through-story and also had concerns about Lawrence's failing vocal power but after seeing the 1946 film ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM they saw how their show could be about the clash of cultures - the King wishing to open his country out to the West but reluctant to give up his absolute power - while the traditional musical love story could be relegated to the supporting characters of Tuptim and Lun Tha.
The search was on to find The King but none of the original choices were available - enter an actor who was concentrating on being a television director, Yul Brynner. What was considered a supporting role suddenly took off with Brynner's magnetic performance and the show was a hit. But tragically, Lawrence started to falter with the demands of the role and started missing performances regularly; she would recover but then be hit with another illness. Despite hospital check-ups for the various ailments the doctors failed to diagnose that she had liver cancer. She, Brynner and the show won Tony Awards in March of 1952 but her health continued to fail and she died in September 1952, one of her last wishes was for Brynner to be given star billing.
Brynner's success in New York meant he could not appear in the London premiere which starred Herbert Lom opposite Valerie Hobson, and of course Yul Brynner went on to recreate his role in the 1956 film version opposite Deborah Kerr for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award; Brynner would finally play the King in London at the Palladium in a 1979 revival which he had already played on Broadway and a tour for three years. He continued to play his iconic role on and off until four months before his death in 1985, even after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer two years before. A limited engagement New York Center revival in 1960 gave Barbara Cook a chance to play Anna opposite Farley Grainger; she later said that, although she only played it for a month, it was her favourite role - she said the actress playing Anna is perfectly supported by both score and book.
This thought is certainly borne out by the extraordinary Kelli O'Hara who lights up the production with a luminous performance which fully justifies her Tony Award for it; her Anna is an intelligent, still-grieving widow who, while standing her ground to The King when she feels she is in the right, warms to his intellectual curiosity and belief in his country. We had missed seeing her in SOUTH PACIFIC so it was a real thrill to experience her soaring, full-bodied soprano voice as she sang the standards "Hello Young Lovers", "Getting To Know You" and "Shall We Dance?"
She is joined by her Broadway co-star Ken Watanabe who was given a bit of a rough ride by the NY critics for his heavy Japanese accent but I thought he gave a winning performance, effortlessly bringing out the King's wily humour and curiosity as well as his imperious demands for respect. It was a testament to both their performances that by the time of their climactic duet "Shall We Dance?" you can relax and just enjoy their obvious pleasure in performing together. It's a role that is so identified with Brynner that Watanabe's success in the role is all the better for that.
It was announced that Ruthie Ann Miles would recreate her Tony Award-winning role as Lady Thiang but tragically she has hit by a dangerous driver in March, killing not only her 4 year-old daughter but her unborn child too. Miles is still credited in the programme as is Naoko Mori who was a glorious addition to the production, her version of "Something Wonderful" was one of the stand-outs and she made Lady Thiang a real presence.
I also liked Na-Young Jeon as Tuptim, the 'present' from the King of Burma to the King. She too had real presence on stage and played the role was a keen pain; I particularly liked her singing of "My Lord and Master", which is one of my favourite songs in a score packed with classics. One of the few failings of Hammerstein's book is the role of Lun Tha is so under-written: he literally runs on, sings a song with Tuptim, then runs off again - twice! Dean John-Wilson ran nicely but that's about it.
As with SOUTH PACIFIC, Bartlett Sher's direction seemed to clear away all the accumulated clutter around the musical so the characters lived within the production, bringing fully thought-through lives onto the stage with them. For such a lavish musical there are only 9 roles within it and Sher seemed to give them all - apart from Lun Tha - a space and a moment to make themselves known. His production certainly had it's moments of lavishness - and of course the lengthy "Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet in Act II - but Sher seemed to make the book numbers spring naturally from the action rather than signalling "Ok musical number, I'll hand over to the choreographer".
Sher is reunited with his SOUTH PACIFIC creative team and they all contribute to the show's success: Christopher Gattelli recreates Jerome Robbins' choreography well - I even liked the potential interest zone-out of "Small House of Uncle Thomas" with it's fine central performance by Ena Yamaguchi! Michael Yeargan's glorious Siamese court shimmers with gold opulence of the court without overdoing it and also gives us a memorable opening scene of Anna's ship coming into the Bangkok harbour against a turbulent sunset. Catherine Zuber's costumes are pure joy and Donald Holder's lighting also give the production a glorious sheen.
THE KING AND I is playing until the end of September - do see it, it's Something Wonderful.
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