Dramatizing the Story

The idea for a musical based on Margaret Landon's novel started with her agent who brought it to the attention of Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence. When she, in turn, asked Rodgers and Hammerstein to write their next show for her, they hesitated. In spite of her terrific talent she was known as being hard to work with, and her voice was starting to fail her more and more. However, when they saw the movie Anna and the King of Siam with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne they started to think seriously about the project Their wives finally persuaded them to begin it.

Both men felt strongly about the need for people of different backgrounds to get along together and this was a vehicle in which people of alien cultures learn to know and accept each other. (Although there is no indication of a romance between Anna and the King in her book, Hammerstein said they were in love but didn't realize it and one is hinted at in the musical.)

The script was difficult to write because the book is a chronicle of events without a real plot and, except for Anna and her son, almost all the characters are oriental. They relied heavily on the movie as well as the book. For example Sir Edward Ramsey was a fictional character introduced in the movie, and Rodgers and Hammerstein added his romantic interest in Anna. The march of the Siamese children was also inspired by the movie as was the death of the King at the end. Hammerstein wrote not only the dialogue but the full stage directions. Jerome Robbins did the choreography. The resulting musical play was different from anything either men had produced previously.

Other than occasional use of the pentatonic scale, Rodgers did not attempt to make the music sound oriental. It is completely western; Shall We Dance is a polka! However, they did use music instead of Thai speech to emphasize its different inflection from English. Hammerstein's young protégée, Stephen Sondheim, was given the job of setting We Kiss in a Shadow, and Rodgers did not write the ballet music. He did not have the time for the necessary detailed work with the choreographer. Anna's music is simple and of low tessitura because of Lawrence's vocal limitations but, for those who could sing, the music was made more operatic.

They first considered Alfred Drake or Rex Harrison to play the King but Yul Brynner auditioned sitting cross-legged on the stage and sang a Russian Gypsy song, accompanying himself on the guitar. In addition, his mother was Romanian gypsy and father a Mongolian which gave an oriental cast to his looks. He was their concept of the King. During rehearsal Getting to Know You was inserted at the request of Lawrence who wanted a scene with the children. As a result of such changes, the show grew so long that forty-five minutes had to be cut before the opening.

At the time, The King and I was most expensive show in Broadway history at $360,000, twice the average cost. The silks for the costumes were imported from Thailand just as Gilbert and Sullivan had imported the fabric for the Mikado costumes from Japan. From the beginning Lawrence's small voice was frequently off key, but she was so charismatic that audience didn't care until near her end. She agreed to study with a vocal coach, but she was diagnosed with stomach cancer and grew steadily weaker; her singing deteriorated so badly that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote a letter asking her to relinquish the role but never sent it. Her costumes had to be redone so they would not weigh so much. Booed occasionally, but still determined to carry on, she died seventeen months into the run and was buried in her ball gown from the show. The King and I continued for a run of three and one-half years with 1,246 performances. (Yul Brynner also died during his last tour in the show in 1985.)

FILM VERSIONS OF THE STORY
Anna and the King of Siam
This movie with Rex Harrison as the King and Irene Dunne as Anna was in some ways more historically accurate than Anna's book. For example she was referred to as Mrs. Owens rather than her own invention Leonowens. It shows her arriving with a lot of furniture, including a piano, two Persian servants and a large Newfoundland dog. Inaccuracies abounded : minor ones include the King asking who Lincoln is, the lack of a British Consulate and Anna being kept a prisoner in the harem when she first arrives. Major changes included the death of her son Louis as well as that of the King. After Louis dies, Chulalongkorn wants to give her the white elephant he was planning to give her son. Anna is given the title of Lady and, after the King's death, the Kralahome asks her to stay on and help Chulalongkorn. In fact, Anna never lived in the harem (her male servant would never have been allowed there) and she left before the King died. Louis lived to return to Siam as an adult.

Anna and the King
This remake of the story starring Jodie Foster as Anna was designed to be more acceptable to the sensitivities of the nineties. As a result it is often very preachy. It incorporated some scenes from the books which were not in the older film versions, but it was mostly fiction. Anna gave Chulalongkorn Uncle Tom's Cabin to read, not one of the wives, and it inspired him to free the slaves of Siam. The British are depicted as inciting the Burmese and others to attack Siam so that Britain could come to its rescue and make it a British protectorate. During the dinner party the Siamese women are dressed as westerners and mingle freely with the European guests one of whom, an army officer, tells Anna he served with her husband and what a great soldier he was. The King and Anna waltz at the party in front of everyone. There is an attempted coup d'état during which the second king is killed by rebels allied with the Burmese and Mongkut declares war. Anna is out in the field with all the wives and children while the King is involved in a scene straight out of The Bridge on the River Kwai in which a defiant King a stands on the bridge knowing it is about to be blownup.

While the historic Mongkut was in his sixties when Anna was there, in this film he is portrayed as young, virile and handsome and always (with one exception) dignified and controlled. Although nothing overt happens, Anna and the King are obviously in love at the end. Yet the movie is scenically stunning and very well acted; in other words, like The King and I, it is a great show but mostly fiction.

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