One of the great gifts of being a longtime theater critic (16 years this month!) is how you sometimes think you understand a show, only to realize how little you knew it after all.
Forever ahead of their time yet sometimes a bit dated from the vantage point of the present, Rodgers and Hammerstein created a number of golden-age musicals that Americans of my generation (I was born in 1960) got to see on TV. But the classic boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl formula that applies to “South Pacific” and “The Sound of Music” does not fit “The King and I,” though notions of exotic locales and ethnic identities do.
With "The King and I," so beautifully realized after all these years by director Bartlett Sher and playing the Fox Theatre through Sunday, Rodgers and Hammerstein had something to say about love and death, religion and royalty, race and class, and the sweeping changes of the modern age.
Based on Margaret Landon’s 1944 loosely historical novel, “Anna and the King of Siam,” “The King and I” centers on a king (Jose Llana) who fears the West and the strong woman (Laura Michelle Kelly) who educates him. This haughty modern woman who comes to teach his many children and wives the way of the world, and insists on being treated with respect, is indeed “A Puzzlement” to the stubborn monarch.
With this gorgeously designed production (sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder), Sher paints a canvas of astonishing beauty that never shies away from the dark subtext.
The visual elements alone are uncommonly fine. Yet there’s also dazzling ballet (Christopher Gattelli bases it on Jerome Robbins’ original choreography), powerhouse vocals and an utterly fetching ensemble of actors who play the king’s circle of courtiers, monks, guards, townspeople, consorts and offspring.
I first noticed Llana in the original production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2005), and I’m delighted to see him flex his considerable comedic chops as the ornery and bombastic king. He’s so very funny here as this figure of dignity, who wields a double-edged sword of the fierce and the tender.
The King’s biggest fear is that outsiders will label him as barbaric. But is he?
Bookended with the story of Anna and the King is the tale of Lun Tha (Kavin Panmeechao) and Tuptim (played by Q Lim on opening night). This secondary romance is something Anna gets and that Kelly articulates luminously in the song “Hello, Young Lovers,” which for me is when the night comes into focus. Again and again, Kelly’s lilting soprano gives me goose bumps.
So many images do.
The simple vermilion and gold fabric that sweeps across the stage between scenes. The fabulous, Thai-style aesthetic (flowing robes, pointy caps, bare feet, a giant Buddha). The fragrance of children, bashful and bold. The corps of impossibly graceful dancers, who move like angels, swans, snow.
Sure, the book gets a little wordy and the production goes on for almost three hours. (Because of that, perhaps, the show starts on time, so don’t tarry before curtain or after intermission, or you might miss a few notes.) But Rodgers and Hammerstein are at their most regal here, and Sher redeems their princely pedigree in every way.
Not to be overlooked is “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” pageant, which the natives put on for the British visitors and a device that is mimicked in “The Book of Mormon.”
“The King and I” is set in 1860s Bangkok, when Lincoln was president (the king wants to send him elephants to help with the war) and Victoria was Queen. “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” is the Thai take on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and it is a hypnotic overload of mask work, dance, pantomime and comedy. Exquisite.
So what did I learn about “The King and I” that I didn’t already know?
Well, I don’t want to spoil it too much. So I’ll just say the story is as much about loss as love, as much about saying goodbye as “Getting to Know You.” Nearly seven decades after arriving on Broadway, two years after Sher’s Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center revival, it remains a timeless achievement. It took my breath away.
THEATER REVIEW
“The King and I”
Though Sunday. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $33.50. Broadway in Atlanta, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, foxtheatre.org.
Bottom line: Love and loss, in royal robes.
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