Tony winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this classic tale of a British schoolteacher's unexpected relationship with the imperious King of Siam.
Five-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara (The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific) and Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Inception) star in a magnificent new Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's beloved THE KING AND I.
Featuring a cast of more than 50, choreography based on the original by Jerome Robbins, and a score of treasured songs including "Getting to Know You," "I Whistle a Happy Tune" and "Shall We Dance?" in their glorious, original orchestrations, Lincoln Center Theater's new staging of THE KING AND I invites you to get to know this inspiring and enchanting musical classic.
Director Bartlett Sher's sweepingly romantic production aches with deep, unforced understanding of the story's East/West cultural divide while luxuriating in the sumptuous pleasures of the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic...the king himself is now powerfully inhabited by Ken Watanabe...Contrary to rumored problems with his pronunciation, every word is as clear as the impact behind it. The coupling of the actor with O'Hara as the English schoolteacher is inspired -- full of aching attraction and the impossible tension of smart, beautiful people from different worlds. O'Hara, with her silvery pinpoint vocal precision and her natural empathy, creates an Anna of fierce, caring intelligence. Watanabe, who shaved his head but is nothing like Brynner, is imposingly tall, masculine yet enormously vulnerable as the ruler of an isolated, male-dominated world and whose doubts about modernization eventually break both their hearts...How good to be getting to know the show all over again.
The King and I' holds up incredibly well as a piece of drama. The songs are beautiful, the characters are complex and its themes of democratization, cultural miscommunication and gender inequality are timely. Sher's production, which features a 51-member cast and a 29-piece orchestra, is generally impressive and satisfying...It is very difficult to understand what Watanabe is saying. He has an imposing presence and highly theatrical spirit, but his diction stops the show in its tracks. O'Hara, one of the finest actresses working in musical theater today, delivers a fine, sympathetic performance as the staunch Anna, but it is hardly as captivating as her sexy Nellie. The standout of the production is Ruthie Ann Miles as Lady Thiang, the King's chief wife, who understands him better than anyone else.
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