New 'King and I' is something wonderful
NEW YORK – There are moments in Lincoln Center Theater's ravishing new Broadway production of The King and I (***½ out of four) that may leave you grinning so hard your face will hurt. Then suddenly, without warning, you'll be fighting off tears.
The well-known song Getting To Know You is led by Anna, a young English widow who has come to Siam (now Thailand) in the 1860s to teach her language and customs to the monarch's wives and children. During a class, Anna — played by the exquisite Kelli O'Hara — expresses her growing affection for her pupils in lyrics that are, like many of Oscar Hammerstein II's, deceptively simple. But if you've kept track of international news recently, watching these people from vastly different cultures carefully but joyfully reach for common ground — "getting to like you, getting to hope you like me" — can be almost unbearably moving.
This is the unique and enduring magic of Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose great musicals still transport us out of this world while encouraging us to study it more closely. As LCT's 2008 revival of South Pacific reminded us, the duo's textured humanity and appeals for tolerance, like their shimmering scores, only gain resonance as time passes.
This King and I, which opened Thursday, brings back South Pacific's director, Bartlett Sher, along with its leading lady, O'Hara, and key members of its production team. Music director/conductor Ted Sperling leads a 29-piece orchestra — a sight worth a standing ovation in itself — whose players remain visible below Michael Yeargan's judicious but stunning sets.
The one element missing from this new revival is a rock-solid leading man. Making his Broadway debut as the King of Siam, Japanese film star Ken Watanabe doesn't yet hold the stage with complete ease, or enunciate all of his lines clearly. But his performance is charismatic and brave, underlining the character's hidden vulnerability, and at times disarmingly playful. Sparring with and teasing Anna, his King can convey an almost childlike sense of mischief, and wonder.
O'Hara complements and supports her co-star with a study in effortless poise, singing and acting with gorgeous subtlety. There is nothing forced or strident about this Anna; when she stands up to the King — defying his attitudes about women, and his apparent need to demean his subjects — her indignation is made more powerful by her sustained grace.
The superb supporting cast includes a number of children, whose open, eager faces seem especially fitting here. More than 60 years on, The King and I still has much to tell us about our differences and shared interests — about all the beautiful and new things we can learn from each other, day by day.