Interview: Getting to Know Him- Meet Broadway's New Royalty, THE KING AND I's Jose Llana!

Earlier this month, Jose Llana stepped into the role of the King of Siam in Lincoln Center Theater's Tony Award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, directed by Bartlett Sher, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). This marks Llana's second experience in the iconic show, as he made is Broadway debut almost 20 years ago as Lun Tha in the 1996 revival.

Llana joins Tony winner Kelli O'Hara for a strictly limited 11-week engagement through Sunday, September 27. Just after he took his first bow on the Vivian Beaumont stage, he checked in with BroadwayWorld to update us on taking on his new role, reuniting with some of his Here Lies Love friends, and so much more. Check out the full interview below!

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You've been in the show now for a little over a week. So how are things going so far?

Things are going great. It's a great company. I've been in really good hands with the cast and with my directors so, it's going really well.

How much time did you get with Bart [Sher] before going into the show?

Bart has been in and out, but I had a lot of time with Bart before I was cast. We did a lot of work together. Tyne Rafaeli has been taking a lot of the lead and putting me into the show and I've had a lot of really great time with Kelli [O'Hara].

How did this all happen for you?

There was conversation a long time ago. It was probably about a year ago when they were still forming The King and I. There was a brief time when they talked about me reprising my role from 20 years ago. I did The King and I in 1996, but I think it was decided that, that was probably not going to be the best idea because I'm not really at that place anymore. Then my friends were cast in the show- Ruthie [Ann Miles] and Conrad [Ricamora] from Here Lies Love. They were both cast so, I was just excited and celebrating them. Then I was invited to opening night by my friend in the cast, Lainie Sakakura, and I struck up a conversation with Bart at the opening night party and I think that things started getting planted there. A couple of weeks later I was in the rehearsal room with Bart working through the King material and then a couple of weeks after that I got the word that I was going to go in for Ken.

I think The King and I has definitely been in my DNA since the beginning. It's a show that means a lot to me. It's a show that gave me my Broadway debut and I did another R&H show after that. Mary Rodgers and Adam Guettel, when she was alive, were both big parts of my career as well. I think The King and I has always been like a family for me and I was excited to come back to it.

It's such a cool full-circle moment for you. Did you always know that you wanted to come back and play this role in some capacity some day?

As a young actor you are told to look at shows and The King and I being my first show, I knew in my heart that somewhere down the road, the King would be something that I would play eventually. I didn't know whether or not it was going to be in this production or another one. I'm just very fortunate that the timing worked out and that it turned out to be this one. So, I'm very happy about that!

Did you get to speak with Ken at all before you went in? Did he have any advice for you?

Yeah! He's so kind. I was in rehearsals for three weeks before he left. I dare say because we knew that we were both so inherently different (I'm a little younger), our King's would be inherently very different and Bart knew that and so did the people at Lincoln Center and Kelli. We all knew that me coming in was going to be a very different King. So there wasn't really much advice to give. It's funny because Ken and I are very different, not just because of our ages, but just because we have a different energy. Something special that he showed me that was really kind was he and Bart had created this shrine backstage. It's behind the lip of one of the walls and he prays at it before every show for clarity and for the safety of the company and the crew. It was really something that he did that really centered him as the King and it's something I do every show now. It's just really sweet. It was something I really appreciated that he wanted to let me know that he did. I found it really cool, so I do that!

That's lovely! Like you mentioned, you are reunited with more than a few of your Here Lies Love cast members. What's that been like?

It has been great, especially Ruthie. We are married again! It's kind of great and at the end of every show Ruthie is right next to me, holding my hand and we walk off stage in the dark together and it's a really nice moment we share at the end of the show. We have been through quite a long journey. We started Here Lies Love together four years ago and took it the whole way. And then reuniting with Conrad who is now playing the part that I played 19 years ago... there's a really great camaraderie there. They've been my brother and sister and like I said in the past too, coming into this company I felt like I had two siblings that were already living in a big house and they were sort of showing me around a lot. So, it has been great!

Have the kids warmed up to you yet?

Oh yeah! It's funny because I've worked with a lot of kids obviously 20 years ago, but this is the first show in a while where I've worked with a lot of kids. They are so on top of the social media in a way that I am not! These kids and their parents have these Instagram accounts and the second my poster went up in front of the theater, they started posting photos with their new "#Daddy" and their new "#King." So I saw a lot of them on social media before I got to know them in person. They are just great kids. They are really great kids and they have been really precocious, really smart kids in the show and I am slowly getting to know all of them.

You're joining the company of a Tony winning revival, playing opposite a Tony winning leading lady. Is there extra pressure going into something that you know is already beloved, or is it comforting knowing that it already works so well?

I'll be honest, there was a lot of pressure. Stepping into a big role like this... I mean going into an already running show is already difficult. You miss the four-week rehearsal process where people are discovering things together. Going into a moving show is huge. You have to hit the marks because you can't change the lighting scheme. You want to create and stand out your own part, but at the same time you don't want to disrupt everyone's show that they already have going.

For me, the King's role is mostly between him and Anna. Kelli has been so generous in being able to plot out a new show for herself too and we've been working on creating a new dynamic between the two of us. But I've got to be honest, the first couple weeks of rehearsal I thought to myself, "What did I get myself into?" Here we are. It's a Tony Award winning revival on the Lincoln Center stage, this gorgeous set, this gorgeous company... My job was just to not mess it up! That was my job. I think being given this responsibility, especially after Bart and I talked and researching the part, to get across the importance of who the King was to his people and to the history, the political tension of what was happening during the time. I think Bart's approach to this production was always more on the realistic and political side than in past productions and part of that was to make the King a little more serious and a little more in tune to the political side. So there was a lot of responsibility in making sure my King was not cartoony. I've seen some horrible YouTube clips of some The King and Is where they brought out the clowny nature of the King. That's fair, but it's also really important to make sure the seriousness of the time period and what was actually happening in the country is also allowed.

It's kind of early in your run, but do you have a favorite moment in the show yet?

Nothing beats that ballroom scene, man. It's such a pay off. It's such a beautiful pay off and then going into the Tuptim scene afterwards it's such a dynamically high rise and fall. It's the kind of scene that an actor dreams about having. It's physically, emotionally and vocally the best and hardest thing. Nothing makes you feel better as an actor than something that exhausts you at the end of the night, which is why right now you are the first person I've spoken to this morning and my voice is clearly not warmed up yet. It takes a lot of focus and a lot of vocal energy to be in this show.

Looking forward, what are you most excited about in completing your eleven-week run?

I'm looking forward to having some fun. I'm looking forward to having as many people in my family and friends come and see the show. It's a very sentimental show for me because a lot of them saw me make my Broadway debut in the same show 20 years ago. It's actually funny because I had my 20 year high school reunion last year and a lot of my high school friends who are married and have numerous children, when I made my Broadway debut, we were all sophomores in college, well I was suppose to be but I dropped out. I got The King and I when I was a freshman in college. So, a lot of them saw me in my Broadway debut when they were all sophomores in college and now they are all married with 2 or 3 kids each and now they can come see me in The King and I and bring their kids. It's pretty special. It's really, really special. So, I'm looking forward to reconnecting with a lot of people who are seeing me in The King and I for the second time. I'm just looking forward to having a good run an doing the part proud and doing Rodgers and Hammerstein proud. So, that's what I'm looking forward to.

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Llana's Broadway credits include: Wonderland, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Drama Desk Award), Flower Drum Song, Rent, Street Corner Symphony, The King and I (1996 Revival). Off-Broadway/Concerts: Here Lies Love (Lortel nomination; Public), American Songbook Series (Kaplan Penthouse), Ragtime (Avery Fisher Hall), Falling for Eve (York Theatre), Saturn Returns (Public), On the Town(NYSF/Delacorte). Regional: Oliver! (Paper Mill); Here Lies Love (WTF); Ballad of Little Jo (Steppenwolf); Martin Guerre (Guthrie, US Tour); Candide, Myths and Hymns (Prince Theater). Film: Hitch, Unconscious. TV: "Sex and the City." Solo album: VIVA Philippines. Education: Manhattan School of Music. www.josellana.com