The King and I 1996- Page 2

[justoldbill]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 11:22pm

Arriving at the theatre with all those elephants on the posters, my companion said that it looked like a revival of JUMBO. And when Donna Murphy made her first entrance swathed in widow's black, I whispered to my companion, "Mame, couldn't you have gone to purple by now?" The sets looked like Mardi Gras floats and we just giggled our way through the production. Not one of my favorites.

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

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 8/12/20 at 4:44pm

joevitus said: "I remember all the hype and Mary Rodgers saying "It's the best production I've ever seen--and I saw the original!" I wasn't a big fan of the recording and never saw that production onstage. I somewhat expected Lou Diamond Philips to appear in more shows after that, he was so well received. But it didn't happen, for one reason or another.

The OBC, the film soundtrack and the 70's revival (though I'm not crazy about Constance Towers)remain my favorite recordings of the score."

I remember hearing that Mary Rodgers said that, and took note of that as a such a great compliment. I wonder what she would have said about the 2015 revival.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/13/20 at 9:08am

justoldbill said: "The sets looked like Mardi Gras floats and we just giggled our way through the production. Not one of my favorites.
"

From what I have seen and heard about this production, it seems like it was the opposite of the 2015 Lincoln Center revival which was stark and simple, but still elegant in its design.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/14/20 at 2:24pm

fashionguru_23 said: "joevitus said: "I remember all the hype and Mary Rodgers saying "It's the best production I've ever seen--and I saw the original!" I wasn't a big fan of the recording and never saw that production onstage. I somewhat expected Lou Diamond Philips to appear in more shows after that, he was so well received. But it didn't happen, for one reason or another.

The OBC, the film soundtrack and the 70's revival (though I'm not crazy about Constance Towers)remain my favorite recordings of the score."

I remember hearing that Mary Rodgers said that, and took note of that as a such a great compliment. I wonder what she would have said about the 2015 revival."

It really is an amazing compliment, I just don't know how to put it in context. It must have been a comment on the physical production (as the actors did not transfer with it), but if that's the case, who cares? Though the show calls for opulence, it isn't about opulence. It's about the characters and relationships, and what actor isn't a mean ghost on stage next to the memory of Yul Brynner. I'm sure there have been much better actresses than Gertrude Lawrence, but has anyone else had that wattage of star power in the role? The more I thought about it, the more likely it struck me that Rogers was creating hype for a revival because the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization primarily functions to do just that. 

[bk]

Posted: 8/14/20 at 9:25pm

EvanstonDad said: "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."

I had to to laugh at the empty comment.  I wonder what kind of system he's listening to it on because empty and small doesn't enter into it because I HATE empty and small - listen to any of today's cast albums and we can talk about empty and small - just not my thing.  I'm a Goddard Lieberson kind of person - he created what I think of as the cast album sound for Broadway and it's what we always strove to do.  We loved making this album, I loved the production, and I thought Donna and Lou were wonderful, but everyone was.  And I was determined to make the first The King and I recording that had the Kralahome on it, just because I thought Randall Duk Kim was so wonderful.  

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 8/14/20 at 11:20pm

This sent me hunting for my 1996 CD so I could listen to some tracks back to back. I remember having a warm positive feeling about both productions leaving the theater. I did see the LCT more than once and had a Beaumont near-cast experience sitting in the second row left orchestra with Kelli and Ruthie Ann a dozen yards away singing directly to me.

No surprises. A luscious Rodgers waltz was a high hanging curve to Kelli, who crushed it. I thought Murphy  had maybe a defter touch with the children in "Getting to Know You." Donna might have been a bit more strident than Kelli in "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You," but both were fine. Kelli can't do comedy? Disagree. That notion seems to be out there and I'm sure they never saw her perform her concert highlight "They Won't Let You in the Opera if You're a Country Star."

Actually, I might also belong to the group whose first preference is Gertrude Lawrence.

In 1996 we were actually more curious about the King than Anna. Almost anyone can play an Victorian English widow (and apparently almost anyone has), but to play Yul "the King" Brynner seemed daunting. We were satisfied with Lou Diamond Phillips but didn't find him fierce enough to make for a memorable king.

Here is a rather odd review of the 1996 production by Vincent Canby in the Times. He pretty much pans the show.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/12/theater/theater-review-once-again-the-taming-of-a-despot.html

[bk]

Posted: 8/14/20 at 11:49pm

Odd indeed. Canby was a terrible film critic, IMO, and an even worse drama critic.  The sets he says are threadbare won the Tony.  The show ran around 780 performances, not so far way way as Canby thought, from the original.  Tony for Best Revival of a Musical as well.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 8/15/20 at 5:07am

This production started life in Australia , can’t remember if it opened in Melbourne or Sydney first with Hayley Mills playing Anna. All I remember about it was Ms Mills was better than expected, Shall We Dance was a show stopper on that revolve and it was Red , the following year a production of Hello Dolly opened and was still blazing red in color 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 8/15/20 at 11:38am

bk said: "Odd indeed. Canby was a terrible film critic, IMO, and an even worse drama critic. The sets he says are threadbare won the Tony. The show ran around 780 performances, not so far way way as Canby thought, from the original. Tony for Best Revival of a Musical as well."

Whatever connection you had with the show, bk, you did good. See how many fondly remember the production almost 25 years later. Played a couple of hundred performances more than LCT.

How do you feel about filming shows? Since LCT London production is available any time on BroadwayHD, it will be remembered for a long time after live 1996 attendees no longer around. Some prefer it this way.

 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/15/20 at 12:44pm

I saw that production 3 times and loved it.  I like the production design very much, but I remember thinking that they must have had a tight budget.  What I remember was a bunch of drapes...the key one was bright red with gold accents (at least in my memory).  I concluded that good imagination made up for money with that production.  By no stretch of the imagination were the sets elaborate, despite what others have said.  

I liked this production of TKAI more than any I have seen (I saw Yul Brynner and Constance Towers twice, Angela Lansbury, Kelli O'Hara twice, Donna Murphy twice, Faith Prince, a few touring Anna's, and for me Donna Murphy far exceeded any of the others in being Anna.  Truth be told, I think the LCT would have been my favorite (based on everything else) if not for Kelli O'Hara, who I have enjoyed greatly in a number of shows, but who was for me very bland as Anna, singing beautifully and being almost wooden in the book scenes, with not an ounce of humor in evidence.  The lack of a strong lead hurt the show (which I still really enjoyed, just not as much as the Murphy version and, believe it or not, a bus and truck touring proscenium version of the Bartlett Sher production that I saw in Sarasota, FL).  I do not know the name of the Anna in that production; however, for my money, she was bested only by Murphy.