Helen George in The King and I. Picture: Johan Persson
Helen George and Darren Lee will reprise their performances as Anna Leonowens and the King when the multi-award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of The King and I dances back into the West End early next year.
Currently starring in the hit touring production Call The Midwife’s George (Company, Love Never Dies) and Broadway and film star Lee (Chicago, Guys and Dolls) will take to the stage of the Dominion Theatre for the production’s encore London season from 20 January until 2 March 2024.
Commenting on being given the chance to play Anna in the West End, George said: “I am so delighted to continue to play the formidable Anna Leonowens in this incredible production of The King and I. I have really enjoyed playing such an incredibly strong character whilst on tour, but to play her on the West End stage is an honour.”
Announcing the second West End season for the critic and crowd-pleasing production, producer Howard Panter said: “Our last London residency of this multi-award-winning production at the London Palladium broke box office records, received critical acclaim and enjoyed standing ovations at every show – we were overwhelmed with the rapturous response. So we are thrilled to bring Helen George and Darren Lee who played The King in the Broadway production to the Dominion next year and offer West End audiences the chance to experience this wondrous production once more. This really is musical theatre at its very best.”
Following on from its record-breaking season at the London Palladium in 2018 and its first record-breaking, UK and international tour in 2019, Bartlett Sher’s acclaimed Broadway production began its second tour at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre in February.
Featuring a world-class company of over 50 performers and a full-scale orchestra, the current tour is due to end in Norwich in November.
The production arrived in the UK in 2018 following an acclaimed 16-month Broadway run and a record-breaking US tour. Director Sher heads the same creative team behind the 2008 award-winning revival of South Pacific and the recent Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum.
With music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and widely regarded as one of their finest works, The King and I boasts a score that includes the classics ‘Getting yo Know You’, ‘Hello Young Lovers’, ‘Shall We Dance’ and ‘Something Wonderful’.
Loosely based on a true story and set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher the imperious King brings to Siam to tutor his many wives and children.
The musical debuted on Broadway in 1951, with veteran actress Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and relatively unknown actor and television director Yul Brynner as The King. Brynner would famously go on to play the role on tour, in the West End and in the hit 1956 film alongside leading lady Deborah Kerr.
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.