THE KING & I Reviews — Page 3

Brantley's review is a love letter to Kelli! What an exciting night for great musical theatre!

With these reviews, Bart might give Sam Gold a run for his money.  And Ruthie Ann Miles is really getting some good praise.  She's got a great shot too.

Jesse Green for Vulture is a rave:

"In a season littered with plays and musicals that purport to tell true stories but don’t, The King and I is (as the King often says) a puzzlement. It is a fiction so well-crafted and so profoundly emotional that it pulverizes arguments against appropriation and becomes a form of history itself. Perhaps it is merely history as we would like it to be, but that is in itself an astonishing achievement. In any case, the revival that opened tonight, in a Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe, is too beautiful to miss. It is also, not incidentally, the best (and probably the last) installment of LCT’s Rodgers and Hammerstein rehabilitation project, which began with Carousel in 1994 and continued with South Pacific in 2008. It’s hard to see how the overfamiliarity that had, over the years, bred a certain amount of contempt could survive this trio of excellent revivals, and in particular the strangeness, seriousness, and loveliness of what’s onstage right now."

http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/theater-review-the-king-and-i.html

That Jesse Green review in Vulture is, as always, everything.

"How many stars did The Post give it? I can't see it on the mobile site!"

 3.5 out of 4

I love Jesse Green.

Entertainment Weekly is positive (A-):

"O’Hara could bring out the romantic swoon in just about any male costar, and Anna is another triumph in her winsome recent gallery of fine portrayals. (And hearing her luscious soprano on beauties like “Hello, Young Lovers” is like finding a precious gift inside a jewel box.) Park makes for a fiery Tuptim, and Miles is a revelation as Lady Thiang. After her impressive turn as Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love, here is another smartly judged performance; the character’s quietly breaking heart while delivering “Something Wonderful” has never been so readily apparent."

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/16/the-king-and-i-lincoln-center-broadway-ew-review

Not to take anything away from her accomplishments, but aside from his more restrained praise for her work in NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, has Ben Brantley ever not completely drooled over Kelli O'Hara? His fetishizing of blonde leading ladies is notorious.

Updated On: 4/16/15 at 11:19 PM

"aside from his more restrained praise for her work in NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, has Ben Brantley ever not completely drooled over Kelli O'Hara?"

 Honestly, she's deserved it every time.

Glad to hear this is opening strong.

Such a beautiful musical, such an amazing score.

Anything less than a great production of "The King and I" would be sad.

Interesting how she's getting raves and he isn't.  And his is one of the most iconic roles in theater.  

Luckily the show is scoring well anyway.

"3.5 out of 4 stars. And it shouldn't be called a rave. She called Ken's "weak performance" a "garbled mess." "

Quick question about how shows are rewarded the Tony in light of this observation.

This show seems to be getting raves, even though one of the leads (portraying perhaps one of the most iconic lead roles in a Broadway show) isn't getting great reviews.

To get the Tony for revival, would the show need to be performing on all cylinders, especially when it comes to the leads?  And if one of the two leads isn't pulling it off, would that hurt its chances?

Linda Winer, the highly respected chief theater critic of Newsday for over twenty five years, absolutely does not drool over leading ladies of any hair color:

O'Hara, with her silvery pinpoint vocal precision and her natural empathy, creates an Anna of fierce, caring intelligence.

And she praises Watanabe just as much, adding:

Contrary to rumored problems with his pronunciation, every word is as clear as the impact behind it.

Pretty soon they'll be calling in science and medicine to try to determine why some have trouble understanding the King and others none at all.