Music Review: The King and I

THE KING AND I – 1993 recording (Jay Records CDJAY 1276)

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Following the successes of Oklahoma!, Carousel and South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II came up with another winner in 1951 – The King and I. Along with The Sound of Music, these five musical shows were immense stage hits only to be followed too by enormous success as movie musicals. For the most part the works produced by this genius partnership were just what the public wanted at the time, although occasionally they missed the mark with Allegro and Flower Drum Song which were only minor successes.

With the exception of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat in 1927, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 1935, and Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey in 1940, the American musical – and the British too, come to that – had been just musical comedies. That is not to say that they were not any good, because the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hart had produced some of the most popular shows in their time. They were, however, essentially romantic comedies, with eminently forgettable plots but set to delightful and tuneful melodies.

However, with the advent of Oklahoma! which had Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II working together for the first time, the Broadway musical took a turn for the best. Based on Lynn Riggs’ play Green Grow the Lilacs, it had a serious plot, albeit a romantic one, set against a background of violence personified by the evil farmhand Jud Fry. Similarly Carousel, based on Ferenc Molnar’s Liliom dealt with themes of robbery, extra-marital pregnancy and suicide. South Pacific was about racism and miscegenation, and The Sound of Music had a nun falling in love with the father of the Trapp children and with a plan for them to escape from the Nazis. As well as giving their shows serious plots of some substance, Rodgers and Hammerstein integrated the book, musical motifs and dances into a completely structured piece.

Similarly with The King and I, they took the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, the governess to the King of Siam’s children in the 1860s, and concentrated on the conflicts between Eastern and Western societies of the time. Siam was a patriarchy governed by the autocratic King Mongkut, a former monk and scholar who resisted the dominance of US traders in order to keep his country independent, but also making sure that his people were familiar with the Western way of life. He seeks out a British governess for his harem and multiple children. Anna Leonowens was running a nursery school in Singapore at the time and she accepted the King’s invitation and moved to Bangkok with her five-year-old son Louis.

This was the basis of the plot for Rodgers and Hammerstein to work on, after the project was turned down by Cole Porter and before Noel Coward had even been approached. Rodgers and Hammerstein were not keen on adapting the book until they saw the 1946 film of Anna and the King of Siam with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne. Anyway, they went ahead and the show was a hit with Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and Yul Brynner as the King. It opened in March 1951 and ran on Broadway for three years, winning five Tony Awards

Sadly, Gertrude Lawrence became ill during the first year of the run and died in September 1952. Brynner continued in the show and the original production went on tour. After that there were many more stagings and revivals around the world and a famous film version too. Twenty-five years after the premiere Brynner was asked to join a US tour and Broadway revival and he continued to appear in the show on and off for the rest of his career until his final appearance in June 1985, a special one-off performance in his honour. He had played the part for over 4,600 times. He died four months later.

The King and I has been a constant favourite, judging by the number of revivals it has had and will continue to have. It is a timeless show because placing it in a period setting means that it will never date. It is not only the libretto that appeals to audiences because of its exotic other-worldliness but also the novelty of the locations for which Rodgers composed music with an Asian feeling to it. However, it remains popular because Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote such a marvellous collection of songs including ‘I Whistle a Happy Tune’, ‘Hello,Young Lovers’, ‘Getting to Know You’, ‘We Kiss in the Shadows’, ‘Something Wonderful’, ‘I Have Dreamed’ and ‘Shall We Dance?’ among others.

There has never been a complete recording of all the songs and the incidental music until now. The version under review is one that was recorded in 1994 and is released here for the first time. Casting opera singer Valerie Masterson in the role of Mrs Anna Leonowens is just perfect because she was not only well-versed in classical opera but was also no stranger to the lighter side of the repertoire – Gilbert and Sullivan, The Merry Widow, Kismet, Bitter Sweet, Song of Norway etc so was experienced enough to tackle another Broadway show. Her vocal range is incredible and she brings a certain warm pathos in singing the part of Anna. She makes ‘I Whistle a Happy Tune’, ‘Hello Young Lovers’ and ‘Getting to Know You’ particularly poignant as her voice soars above the orchestra into the stratosphere.

As the King Christopher Lee is surprisingly good, picking up the music and lyrics of ‘A Puzzlement’ and ‘Song of the King’, making them his own and imbuing them with both passion and sincerity. The rest of the cast perform with equal brilliance. As Lady Thiang Sally Burgess, who has a similar familiarity with the opera repertoire as Masterson, delivers the lyrics of  ‘Something Wonderful’ with a wholly sustained emotional impact in one of the most moving numbers in the score.

Jason Howard as Lun Tha and Tinuke Olafimihan as Tuptim shine in their duets of  ‘We Kiss in the Shadows’ and ‘I Have Dreamed’ with the firm voice of Lun Tha perfectly matching the innocent purity of Tuptim’s, as they declare their love for each other. There are also very fine contributions from Bea Jukakassiun as Prince Chululongkorn, Andre Mutis as Phra Alack, Cheng Wah as the Kralahome, Henry Williams as Louis and Alec McCowen as Sir Edward Ramsay.

The Act I presentation of the King’s offspring in ‘The March of the Siamese Children’ is one of the most moving and endearing scenes in the show that never fails to impress an audience. In  Act II it is the Small House of Uncle Thomas play that dominates the action. This is the Siamese children’s version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin that manages to combine East and West in a melding of two cultures, which is what Anna set out to do.

However, of course, the real clincher of Act II is the ‘Shall We Dance?” number in which Anna teaches the King how to hold his dancing partner and away they go, releasing all the pent-up passion that has grown between them. It’s a liberating time not only for the King and Anna but also for the audience to relax and take a breath while awaiting the rest of the story.

This Jay Records double CD is the first complete recording of the show so it is to be welcomed as a piece of musical theatre history. The National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations under conductor John Owen Edwards in a stunning performance of Richard Rodgers’ outstanding score and Oscar Hammerstein’s exceptional lyrics. The result is brilliantly clear and incisive thanks to recording engineer John Kurlander’s expertise. However many more revivals there are likely to be of The King and I, this will be the recording all completists will want to have.

Michael Darvell