Donna Murphy in THE KING & I

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:04pm

Listening to the revival recording, I love what I hear. Did anyone see her take on the role of Anna? Please, do tell how she was!

[Broadway_freak]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:06pm

Fab as always...she won the tony you know..

[442namffug]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:08pm

Yes I saw her in the role and she is the only part of the production worth remembering.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:09pm

Julie Andrews would have won had she not asked her name be taken out it because of what sho thought were slights to the rest of the cast and production team.

I thought Donna Murphy was very good but I actually liked Faith Prince better when she took over the part.

[Doogie]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:10pm

I saw it with Faith Prince (I was all of 10) and, if memory serves, Joohee Choi was CERTAINLY worth remembering.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:23pm

Julie Andrews name was kept in the ballot though, so Donna Murphy's victory was genuine. I love her performance on the recording, her "Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You" is the best out of 4 version I've heard(OBC, Hollywood Studio Recording with Julie Andrews, 1996 Cast, another Studio Recording), yes, even better than Julie Andrews' version in my opinion. I don't know why this number was left out of the movie, it is such a tour de force, my favorite song in the whole album and Murphy adds so much to it. She really never fails to impress me.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 5:25pm

Murphy played it as if she were still Fosca--far too neurotic for the role as written and not what the writers intended at all.


Prince Chululongkorn
Bangkok, Thailand

[Steve2]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 6:18pm

I will never know. She was out the night I was there!

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 9:22pm

I unfortunatly can't give any specifics as I was 11 or 12 when I saw it, but the production was really good. I remember the Anna when I saw it some time later wasn't nearly as good.

Enchanted, listening to Forbidden Broadway lately?:)

[musicaltheater1]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 11:08pm

I was fortunate to see the revival. It was visually stunning, even the program was done quite well. I remember the live buddhas above the proscenium, and the staging of Uncle Thomas..almost the same as the film version. The set & costume design, I hope, won the Tonys. Anyway, Donna Murphy was good, a little "Fosca-ish" but different from the more popular Andrews interpretation. What stood out for me was Lou Diamond Philips. Yes, I was astounded with my reaction too. I never liked him until I saw him as the King. Jose Llana was ok but his duet with Ms. Choi in "Kiss in the Shadow" and "I Have Dreamed" was such a charming treat. Overall, this revival is in my personal top 5 all time hits.

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 12/31/05 at 11:26pm

Hope she was better than Stefanie Powers.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 12:39am

i'm sure Donna put a lot of herself into Fosca, so naturally Fosca's character would seem like it was carried into Anna, but i think think that she puts herslef into each role. I haven't seen the production, but there is such a difference of intonation in her voice between the Passion soundtrack and the King and I Soundtrack that I have to come to the conlcusion (for my own sake) that people think of her Anna as being fosca-like because of her previous fame for the role.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 12:39am

kudos to iluvtheatertrash for starting this thread.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 12:45am

I think so too Isabella. From the very little I recall, I remember a Fosca like Anna at all...just darker and more layered than Anna conventionally is. I'd only seen the movie at that point and at no point was I confused by the "scary weird Anna" on stage.

Ms. Murphy takes everything into consideration. She's very research and exploration oriented. I've never seen her do the same character twice (at least in her film/tv work) so I find it difficult to believe her Anna was like her Fosca.

Sometimes people just get a little flack when they take risks.

Updated On: 1/1/06 at 12:45 AM

[IveGottaBeME]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 3:14am

daphne should have won for Mimi

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 10:22am

Donna Murphy was great in the role and her singing was the kind that makes you go around chirping that Broadway singers are the best theatre has.

Of particular note was the presence of Randall Duk Kim, the great classicist actor from Hawaii, who played the role of the King's advisor. Director liked him so much he had him onstage much of the time. Deep full rich voice. Does voiceovers for like BBC and other productions. He ran a Shakespeare company with his lady significant other in like Michigan or a nearby state for a number of years.

Posted: 1/1/06 at 10:46am

A stunning revival and Donna Murphy was a beautiful,passionate Anna. She was more intense than previous Annas which I think made the final scene even more poignant and powerful than in previous productions. Lou Diamond Phillips brought a humanity to the King which I had never seen before. Whatever happened to Johee Choi. Such a glorious voice! And a beautiful Tuptim. Anybody know what she's up to now?

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 1:55pm

A cheap-looking (particularly its costumes), poorly-directed production with staging ripped off from MISS SAIGON. Gertrude Lawrence had nothing on Murphy, whose off-pitch singing was intolerable.


Mayella Ewell
Maycomb, Alabama

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 2:35pm

I did not see this production of the Kind And I, but I think the soundtrack is amazing. Donna Murphy is so expressive in sound that you feel as though you are actually watching it. At least that's what I think.
I also agree with Isabella that people were and are so used to Donna Murphy as Fosca that they may have noticed things that were even remotely similar. She is very research oriented and I have never seen her repeat a character, and that is a part of what makes her so amazing.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 4:48pm

i think i'm slightly off today because i really don't understand what TheEnchantedHunter meant in the post. i have a feeling that you're on murphy's side but what did you meant about: "A cheap-looking (particularly its costumes), poorly-directed production with staging ripped off from MISS SAIGON." is that what you thought of the production with murphy?

[mentaltenant]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 6:31pm

"I will never know. She was out the night I was there!"

haha who is at all surprised by that?
--------

"daphne should have won for Mimi"

duh!

Updated On: 1/1/06 at 06:31 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 7:12pm

Isabella, EnchantedHunter wasn't pleased with Donna Murphy's singing judging from the comment "Gertrude Lawrence had nothing on Murphy, whose off-pitch singing was intolerable." I like Murphy's singing (on recording) a lot lot more than Gertrude Lawrence's, although the show was written for her back in the 40s. What Donna does with "Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You?" is just far from superb, it's just orgasmic. I don't see how the combination of comedy, melancholy, warmth, and sadness she puts in the song is reminiscent of what she did with Fosca in any way.

[Isabella2]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 10:19pm

yeah i got confused because i thought that if one would want to insult Ms. Murphy then they'd say "murphy has nothing on Lawrence" not the other way around.

Also, i didn't know which one she thought was offtune because it was kind of a meshed sentence. You'd have to be slightly tone deaf to think that donna was off-pitch. especially if you actually listen to her and not dismiss her just because you like someone else better. i actually just played my piano next to donna's voice with the vocal score to the king and I and everything she sang was directly on tune.


Updated On: 1/1/06 at 10:19 PM

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 1/25/06 at 2:35am

I just saw this thread on a search I did to see if anyone had discussed this issue and I am surprised someone would accuse Donna Murphy of being off-pitch. She was a completely different Anna than Gertrude Lawrence from what I know about the production history of The King and I. Murphy made Anna a darker role yes, but she also explored Anna's sexual tension with the king which no one had done on Broadway before (actually this was more the director's idea which he had tried on an Australian production). I had seen Murphy when I was kind of very young in Passion because my dad is a theater guy and he said he'd die if his son didn't see THE Donna Murphy in THE Broadway show. And when I went to see The King and I, it started with the lady from Passion singing a song titled "I Whistle A Happy Tune," and I was disappointed, by the time she did "Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You?" I was completely absorbed in the story and had forgotten that Anna was played by that woman who did Fosca. She was magnificent, and while I enjoyed Daphne in Rent, I think the Tony belonged to Murphy without a question.