The King and I 1996

Hi all!

I remember being in love with the production of The King and I that I saw in 1996 with Donna Murphy as a child. I'm listening to the cast album for the first time in a very long time... It's not how I remembered it to be LOL. So, my question(s) is.. what were your own thoughts on this revival in the 90s? I'm sure many of you were more mature than I was and could look at it from a critical way. Also, if you want to answer this next question, I'd love to hear! Are there shows you revisit after years, having loved it when you saw it, but now you find it "Eh" or not how you remembered it to be?

BCfitasafiddle said: "Hi all!

I remember being in love with the production of The King and I that I saw in 1996 with Donna Murphy as a child. I'm listening to the cast album for the first time in a very long time... It's not how I remembered it to be LOL. So, my question(s) is.. what were your own thoughts on this revival in the 90s? I'm sure many of you were more mature than I was and could look at it from a critical way. Also, if you want to answer this next question, I'd love to hear! Are there shows you revisit after years, havinglovedit when you saw it, but now you find it "Eh" or not how you remembered it to be?"

I felt the production overall was decent, although I felt the 2015 revival was better. Lou Diamond Phillips surprised me in a good way, but I remember Donna Murphy being extremely under pitch the whole show (although her acting was fine). It was a very lavishly designed production, sometimes to the detriment of it in my opinion as it sometimes overshadowed the actors. However it was still stunning to look at.

I have seen 7 or 8 productions of TKAI, and I thought the 1996 version was tied with the recent LCT production for best. The Lincoln Center version benefitted from the size of the stage and Bartlett Sher's ability to leverage it. The 1996 version was all about Donna Murphy IMO.

Kelly O'Hara, who should have won the Tony a couple of times before, did not deserve the Tony for TKAI to me. She sang well, but was just too bland. In addition to having a great voice, Murphy brought so much more to the role, including quite a bit of humor, which I had not noticed previously. It was far and away the best performance of Anna that I have seen.

I hav to admit that I love the OCR more than any other that I have heard, so maybe I just have a bias; but this was the first time that I actually realized what a great musical TKAI was and is.

I remember the design being very lush with lots of huge pieces. Overall, I liked the design of the 2015 LCT production better (those weird hanging vines notwithstanding) because the '96 version often felt very heavy.

I liked Donna's acting a bit better too -- she was quite fierce early on, which made her gradual softening leading up to "Shall We Dance?" more effective.

I remember Lou being fine, but Watanabe was much more commanding in the more recent revival.

I saw a late preview and remember a very cute moment when one of the children forgot his line during one of the classroom scenes and Donna very gently led him through it.

greensgreens said: "Hayley Mills headlined the tour of this. It was something!"

Curious if you are being ironic. I saw her in Charlotte, NC, and thought she was not up to the demands of the role vocally. Considering that Gertrude Lawrence had a pretty weak voice in the original production (I guess you had to be there), I thought she would be okay. She did stay on key, but her voice was so thin that it left the performance for me without an 'anchor'.

Jarethan said: "greensgreens said: "Hayley Mills headlined the tour of this. It was something!"

Curious if you are being ironic. I saw herin Charlotte, NC, and thought she was not up to the demands of the role vocally. Considering that Gertrude Lawrence had a pretty weak voice in the original production (I guessyou had to be there), I thought she would be okay. She didstay on key, but her voice was so thin that it left the performance for me without an 'anchor'."

I also saw this touring version but Mills was out the day I saw it. I distinctly remember arriving to the theatre early, when it was still up in the air whether she was going on or not, and one of the staff saying to me "It looks like Hayley Mills may be out this evening....In other words, you may luck out."

I loved this revival of The King and I. Far more than the LCT revival.

As a student, I'd seen Yul Brynner and Constance Towers in the 1977 Broadway revival. 19 years later, I saw the production with Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy and the cast album has been a favorite of mine ever since. I sometimes listen to the Brynner 1977 cast recording as I love how well the album was produced (Thomas Z. Shepard). I'm not a big fan of the most recent recording, but there's nothing really wrong with it; just my opinion

The thing I remember about the 1996 production is the sound design. I was sitting center orchestra, maybe 8 or 9 rows back. The sound was incredibly loud and very non-directional. It was truly like a "wall of sound"... For me, it sounded like there was no left, right or center...everything came at you in one massive aural assault. I don't know how else to describe it. There was no nuance. In time, as the production continued, I became used to it...but I've never heard anything like it since.

Both Murphy and Phillips were outstanding.

Since we're talking about the 1996 revival, I'm wondering if anyone might be able to answer a question for me. I too saw the version of that production in Australia a few years ago. There was a brief moment after Anna had finished singing 'Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?', when she was alone in the throne room. She made a couple of halting steps towards the throne dais, as if she had half a mind to try out sitting on the throne. Then somebody came in and she abandoned the idea, embarrassed. It got a laugh. I was wondering if anyone here happens to remember whether or not that happened in the 1996 Broadway version? (I'm assuming here that it isn't in the script, though I may be wrong.) I was in two minds about it; on the one hand, it was rather over the top. But it did make the story seem a little more like a stoush between two like minds (and similarly huge egos), rather than the 'voice of reason vs petulant egotist' that it might have been.

I always think it's so interesting that people can have such different opinions about the same thing. Someone said they don't like the '96 recording because it's not full enough, whereas it's always been my favorite recording of the show precisely because it sounds so lush. I didn't see the Broadway show, but I did see the tour in Chicago. It was at the Auditorium Theatre, which is a barn, and I saw it on a weekend matinee that was virtually empty. The vastness of the theatre combined with the small audience took some of the gusto out of the production, but I enjoyed it. It didn't stray far in staging from other versions of the show I've seen, but it had nice design.

I watched some of the Lincoln Center Theatre production when it aired on PBS, and I was really underwhelmed by Kelli O'Hara. She was strangely humorless. The King and I is a very funny show, and while the King gets more of the obvious humor, Anna gets a lot of it too if played the right way. Deborah Kerr nailed it in the movie, and just based on the recording Donna Murphy gets it too. O'Hara didn't land a single laugh.

Someone in a Tree2 said: "Thankyou to whomever inquired about Faith Prince’s Anna in the ‘96 Revival. That’s who we saw in the show, having been in love Faith since Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and of course, the GUYS & DOLLS revival of 4 years earlier.
Sorry to say, we thought her casting was a dreadful mistake. She literally still employed the squeaks and verbal hiccups of the wacky Adelaide, which made no sense for the Welsh-born Anna. Just a total mismatch of actress and character."

That is very interesting, since I did not experience that. I saw her very late in the run; did you see it earlier? (I am thinking that maybe her performance evolved to reflect feedback re the Adelaide issues. As I said, I did not think she was a stand-out, I did think she was fine. (I am not a particular fan in general).

Updated On: 8/11/20 at 11:22 PM