page_title: The King and I
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: The King and I / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Yul Brynner as the King, from a 1977 souvenir program for The King and I. Lacks any copyright notice, so it is no longer under copyright. Image can be found here
context_page_description: The King and I is the fifth musical by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel, Anna and the King of Siam, which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. The musical's plot relates the experiences of Anna, a British schoolteacher hired as part of the King's drive to modernize his country. The relationship between the King and Anna is marked by conflict through much of the piece, as well as by a love to which neither can admit. The musical premiered on March 29, 1951, at Broadway's St. James Theatre. It ran for nearly three years, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history at the time, and has had many tours and revivals.
  In 1950, theatrical attorney Fanny Holtzmann was looking for a part for her client, veteran leading lady Gertrude Lawrence. Holtzmann realized that Landon's book would provide an ideal vehicle and contacted Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were initially reluctant but agreed to write the musical.
context_section_description: Opening night reviews of the musical were strongly positive.  Richard Watts in the New York Post termed it "[a]nother triumph for the masters". Critic John Mason Brown stated, "They have done it again."  The New York Times drama critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "This time Messrs. Rodgers and Hammerstein are not breaking any fresh trails, but they are accomplished artists of song and words in the theater; and The King and I is a beautiful and lovable musical play."  Barely less enthusiastic was John Lardner in The New Yorker, who wrote, "Even those of us who find [the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals] a little too unremittingly wholesome are bound to take pleasure in the high spirits and technical skill that their authors, and producers, have put into them."  Otis Guernsey wrote for the New York Herald Tribune, "Musicals and leading men will never be the same after last night ... Brynner set an example that will be hard to follow ... Probably the best show of the decade.
  The balance of opinion among the critics of the original London production was generally favorable, with a few reservations.  In The Observer, Ivor Brown predicted that the piece would "settle down for some years at Drury Lane."  The anonymous critic of The Times compared the work to Gilbert and Sullivan: "Mr. Rodgers charmingly echoes Sullivan in the king's more topsy-turvy moments; and Mr. Hammerstein attends very skilfully to the lurking Gilbertian humour."  Less favorably, in the Daily Express, John Barber called the work "this treacle-bin Mikado", and declared that only one of the cast, Muriel Smith, could really sing.
  In 1963, New York Times reviewer Lewis Funke said of the musical, "Mr. Hammerstein put all of his big heart into the simple story of a British woman's adventures, heartaches, and triumphs. ... A man with a world-view, he seized the opportunity provided by [Landon's book] to underscore his thoughts on the common destiny of humanity."  Fourteen years later, another Times reviewer, Clive Barnes, called the musical "unsophisticated and untroubled.  Even its shadows are lightened with a laugh or a sweetly sentimental tear ... we can even be persuaded to take death as a happy ending".
  The reworked 1996 Broadway production received mixed reviews. Vincent Canby of The New York Times disliked it:  "This latest King and I might look like a million dollars as a regional production; on Broadway ... it's a disappointment. The score remains enchanting but, somewhere along the line, there has been a serious failure of the theatrical imagination."  But Liz Smith enthused: "The King and I is perfect"; and the Houston Chronicle wrote, of the subsequent tour, "The King and I is the essence of musical theater, an occasion when drama, music, dance and decor combine to take the audience on an unforgettable journey." Critic Richard Christiansen in the Chicago Tribune observed, of a 1998 tour stop at the Auditorium Theatre: "Written in a more leisurely and innocent and less politically correct period, [The King and I] cannot escape the 1990s onus of its condescending attitude toward the pidgin English monarch and his people. And its story moves at a pace that's a mite too slow for this more hurried day and age."  When the production reached London in 2000, however, it received uniformly positive reviews; the Financial Times called it "a handsome, spectacular, strongly performed introduction to one of the truly great musicals".
  The 2015 Broadway revival initially received uniformly glowing reviews.  Ben Brantley of The New York Times called it a "resplendent production" and commented:
  [In the] 1996 production ... [a] dark strain of sadomasochistic tension born of Victorian repression and Eastern sensuality was introduced into sunny Siam. ... Mr. Sher is no strong-armed revisionist. He works from within vintage material, coaxing shadowy emotional depths to churn up a surface that might otherwise seem shiny and slick. ... [T]he show is both panoramic and personal, balancing dazzling musical set pieces with sung introspective soliloquies. [The direction] enhances [s
caption: Brynner in the 1977 Broadway production
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "CanoScan LiDE 110", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.7.1", "Image DateTime": "2013:02:04 09:04:21", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.8.2", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "600", "Thumbnail YResolution": "600", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "478", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3501", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:02:04 09:03:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5104", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "6992", "EXIF FileSource": "Reflection Print Scanner", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto"}