The King and I is on borrowed time. The 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical—a staple of the stage since debut—feels downright subversive in 2017.
The play tells the tale of Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, who is charged with educating the children of King Mongkut in mid-19th century Siam (today’s Thailand). The King and I contains a number of what would today surely be described as Orientalist tropes. Mongkut is a polygamist, with dozens of children. He practices slavery. He speaks English with a heavy accent, and drops his articles and confuses his verb tenses. And, crucially, the Welsh-born Miss Anna partially civilizes the man, by calmly and steadily promoting what the show refers to as “Western” values. In other words, The King and I hits a whole lot of the boxes on 2017’s bingo card of social justice grievances.
That is to say, see it while you can. Because The King and I is a terrific musical. The score is fabulous. It’s a shame that the musical’s most famous song, “Getting to Know You,” is among its weakest, because the play is chock full of gems: “My Lord and Master,” “We Kiss in a Shadow,” and “Shall We Dance,” are all terrific. The two main characters each have monologue-like numbers—the King’s “A Puzzlement,” Miss Anna’s “Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You?”—that serve as bookends to another. They’re both extremely witty. And to my mind the swelling strings of “Something Wonderful” rival even The Sound of Music’s “Climb Every Mountain” in the emotional wallop they pack. The play’s plot, based loosely on a true story, is slight, but moving. As they joust over political values, Anna and the King fall almost, sort-of, kind-of in love. But it’s a love that can never be consummated.
This touring version of the show, now at Washington’s Kennedy Center after a successful run in New York, is largely faithful to its original iteration. Miss Anna’s massive hoop skirt, familiar to those who’ve seen the excellent 1956 film version, is there. So are the shiny, silken costumes of the Siamese. The performances are uniformly excellent; Jose Llana brings a levity to his performance of the King that is strangely absent in even the great Yul Brynner’s famous take on the part. British-born Laura Michelle Kelly is terrific as Miss Anna, and has the pipes for the part. The supporting actors round out the play well.
You can see the contours of this story would be told if it were written today; it would be a relativist take, with the King and Miss Anna right and wrong in equal parts. Miss Anna would lose her steadfast belief in the superiority of Western values; the King might moderate a bit, perhaps by abolishing slavery. But that’s not how Rodgers and Hammerstein told it: Here, whenever there is a dispute between the King and Miss Anna, the latter, as an avatar of Western values, is always right. The King and I’s message is as bracing as its wonderful music.
