Review: The King and I

Hey readers!
It's time for my review of The King and I.
The King and I is an old classic; almost all the theatre fans that I know have seen the show. It was something I had always had an interest in seeing, but the only production playing in the past few years was on Broadway and I always seemed to run out of time in New York before I could see it. I did see the film last Christmas and really liked it. I was delighted when I saw it was playing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during my Washington D.C. trip, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I was really excited to go and see it. I loved the majority of the performances, the score, storyline and costumes, however I do feel this production was in the wrong venue. The best thing about this production is Laura Michelle Kelly as Anna Leonownes, who gives an award worthy performance. She was the driving force behind the show from beginning to end, remaining flawless throughout. Laura has a beautiful voice and was the perfect choice for Anna. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the show as much as I did without her performance. Other cast members who stood out were Jose Llana as the King of Siam, Joan Almedilla as Lady Thiang, Anthony Chan as Prince Chulalongkorn and Brian Rivera as Kralahome. They all gave outstanding performances, of which I enjoyed watching. The score of The King and I, despite being 66 years old, does not come across as being dated and still comes across as being delightful. My personal favourite songs from this Rogers and Hammerstein score were 'Getting to Know You' and 'Shall We Dance?'. The story of The King and I, Anna Leonowens, a widowed governess with a young son, who is sent to Siam to tutor the young children of the King of Siam. She ends up having a large influence on the royal family and helps to form the next monarch. It's a truly heart warming tale and shortly after seeing the show I found out, to my surprise, that it was based off of a true story. The costumes were excellently designed for all characters. They were very authentic for 1862, the year the show takes set in, and helped to transport the audience to this time period. As much as I loved all of these aspects, there were a few faults to this production, which may mainly be due to the venue the show was playing in. The show is at the John F. Kennedy Centre of Performing Arts Opera House, filled with 2,300 seats. This is a huge theatre, and I personally feel the show would have benefited from playing in a smaller theatre. As a result of the venue, the sound design did not work so well. Originally, it was a little too quiet and it could be difficult to hear the performers during certain scenes. However, I think they realised the error, but the sound design got worse and the performers were echoing. Hopefully the sound design has been sorted out since that performance. The lighting design also became an issue from time to time, which could have been because of the large venue as well. I have been told that the set design has been largely downscaled from the original Broadway production, however I question whether it has been downscaled too much. The set design  seemed too plain, and may have been nicer if it had more detail to it. My only other criticism for this production was the accent of the child who plays Louis Leonowens. The accent is supposed to be English, but being an English native I can tell you for sure that this was not an English accent. This could be the fault of the dialect coach, so I hope that the dialect coach is able to rectify this mistake for the rest of the tour. Despite these flaws, nothing can take away the fact that this is a marvellous show. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and recommend it to those who live near a theatre where this is playing.

The featured star of The King and I is, drum roll please... LAURA MICHELLE KELLY!

I cannot think of anybody better for the role of Anna. Laura Michelle Kelly is the perfect fit for the role; her performance cannot be faulted in any way. I hope to see Laura in more shows in the future.

Now for my final verdict on The King and I. I give The King and I...

I wanted to give this 4 stars, as it's such a great show, but with the few design flaws I had a very tough decision to make. I decided to go with 3 stars, but if I did half stars this would receive 3 and a half!

Think it should have got a higher rating? Agree with my rating? Think it should have got a lower rating? If so comment below.

Thanks for reading!

-The Reviewer