The Fox has kicked off the holiday season with – well, not quite a bang, but the sound of a gong being struck, thanks to its production of The King and I. This is the Lincoln Center production that won a Tony in 2015 for Best Revival. “Revival” hardly begins to describe it. It’s a show that’s about as far from needing CPR as can be imagined.
It’s hard, I suspect, for modern audiences to understand the impact Rodgers and Hammerstein had on musical theater. There were great musicals before them – all praise to Cole Porter and the Gershwins, certainly. But in the postwar period when Americans wanted everything sunny and perfect, they, however gingerly, looked at social issues, allowed darkness into their shows, and, among other things, gave us some great love songs. (Broadway songs being played on radio stations aimed at teenagers? Yes, they were.) Opening less than two years after their boffo hit South Pacific, The King and I showed, if there were any doubters, just how strong their work together was.
Two strong leads headline the list of attributes of the show we see now. Laura Michelle Kelly pretty much blows it out of the water as the widowed Anna Leonowens who comes to Siam to tutor the royal children. She’s warm, while maintaining a bit of English reserve until late in the show, and sounds absolutely splendid. Jose Llana plays the king. He makes one forget about Yul Brynner. He looks nothing like the leonine Brynner, certainly, who will forever be associated with the role he created. But more importantly, Llana is a different king, pricklier to the point of being spiky, carrying his importance not so much with his physical appearance as with his presentation. It’s an immensely satisfying piece of work.
More great voices from the two secondary women in the cast. Lady Thiang, the head wife and mother of the crown prince, is Joan Almedilla, strong and blowing us away with her song, “Something Wonderful”. Q Lim is played by Tuptim, the slave brought to the king as a present from the King of Burma. She’s less the hesitant wisp of a girl than is sometime seen, knowing she loves Lun Tha, a scholar who’s brought her to Siam for the king and has remained there to study design. Here’s another fabulous voice, with the several songs that the character has, including the beautiful duet “We Kiss in a Shadow” with Lun Tha (Kavin Panmeechao).
The children are enchanting, of course; that’s mandatory with this show, and so it should be. The crown prince (Anthony Chan) is really no longer a child, but an older adolescent, and Louis (Rhtees Stump), Anna’s son, a teenager as well. Chan’s glaring and stomping is particularly effective.
Not deeply elaborate sets except for the amazing boat that is revealed when the curtain rises – or in this case, is pulled back, a large silky swath of fabric that’s light enough for one person to pull it cross-stage each time. The boat is huge, seeming to be a metaphor for Western design as opposed to the restraint and delicacy of the Asian aesthetic. They’re all courtesy of Michael Yeargan.
Costumes, of course, are a different matter when it comes to restraint for this show.. Catherine Zuber takes full advantage of color and fabric and accessories to drape all involved in dramatic outfits. The image of the play is often that of the King and Mrs. Leonowens dancing – see the photo here – and the dress, a masterpiece of fabric, cut, movement and engineering, is powerful. Notice how it moves both when Anna walks and dances, and how the hoop apparatus keeps the majority of the huge skirt behind her. The costumes in the original play and the film of the same name were from the award-winning Irene Sharaff and who’s credited with popularizing Thai silk as a high-end couturier fabric because of her work on this show.
Christopher Gattelli has based the choreography on the original from Jerome Robbins. Scott Lehrer designed the sound. The people who brought it into the Fox have done a superb job of making sure it’s audible, loud enough without shaking bones and clearly heard. The tricky auditorium has been beautifully mastered for this show. (And on the whole, things are improving considerably at the venue.)
Bartlett Sher directed this absolute jewel of a show. Fifty years from now, there’ll be festivals of this kind of musical theatre, just as there are opera and cabaret festivals, and this is the sort of experience they’ll aim for.
The King and I
through December 10
Fox Theatre
527 N. Grand