Theatre Register
The King and I

The King and I

Shows · The King and I

The King and I . Anna (Gertrude Lawrence) asks the King (Yul Brynner). “Shall We Dance?” The King and I . “Shall We Dance?” Anna (Gertrude Lawrence) asks the King (Yul Brynner). Based on the diaries of an adventurous Englishwoman, Anna Leonowens, the story of The King and I (a title Miss Lawrence never liked) is set in Bangkok in the early 1860s. Anna, the new governess and teacher to King Mongkut’s many children, ha…

Opened
1951
Performances
1,246
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Richard RodgersLyrics: Oscar Hammerstein IIBook: Oscar Hammerstein II

Productions6 on Broadway

1951 St. James Theatre Original. March 29, 1951 · John van Druten 1,246 performances · 5 Tony wins
1977 Uris Theatre Revival. May 2, 1977 · Yuriko 695 performances
1985 Broadway Theatre Revival. January 7, 1985 · Mitch Leigh 191 performances
1996 Neil Simon Theatre Revival. April 11, 1996 · Christopher Renshaw 780 performances
2015 Revival Theatre not recorded. · Bartlett Sher 538 performances
2018 London Palladium Transfer.

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Recordings 6 albums held

Licensing 2 entries

US Concord Theatricals R&H Theatricals available
UK Concord Theatricals R&H Theatricals available

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature52 passages

“Getting to Know You” was added during the tryout for Anna and the royal wives and children. As “Suddenly Lucky,” it had been intended for Cable to sing to Liat in South Pacific, but was dropped in favor of “Younger Than Springtime.” With a revised lyric, the song became one of the hit songs from The King and I. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p140

As of this writing, The King and I has been revived in New York eight times for a total of 3,052 performances. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p141

among the chorus singers was Marni Nixon, who became famous when her singing voice dubbed various actresses who appeared in film musicals (Deborah Kerr for The King and I ; Natalie Wood for West Side Story ; and Audrey Hepburn for My Fair Lady ). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p368

The revival of The King and I was the musical’s first since the original Broadway production had closed two years earlier. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p533

Like The King and I and Flower Drum Song, the musical seemed to shortchange its major character. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p842

On March 29, 1951, Rodgers and Hammerstein presented their latest creation, The King and I, directed by playwright John Van Druten and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. With Gertrude Lawrence and a practically unknown actor, Yul Brynner, in the leads, the romantic musical based on the popular novel Anna and the King of… book:at-this-theatre-100-years-of-broadway-shows-stories-and-botto-louis-viagas-rober#p279

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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