The King and I National Tour — Page 2

Mister Matt, you're right about the lack of sexual tension before and during Shall We Dance. I thought it was because the understudy I had just wasn't giving her anything to work with, however. I'm sad if it's just not coming across in this production. I hate to keep returning to the Broadway production. But with O'Hara and Hoon Lee, there was palpable sexual tension there. Last night, it just sat there. I tend to lay blame on the King, because as I said, Laura Michelle Kelly was perfection.

Does anyone know if Laura Michelle Kelly will still be performing in King and I through the end of 2017?

Could you clarify what that means “four stops”? Is that four cities or...

So if the St. Louis run starts on 11/28 she should be back?

faceleg said: "I enjoyed the tour, but was very annoyed with the curtain that was constantly being closed and opened. Was that in the Broadway production?"

This most certainly wasn’t even the case when I saw the show last April in Pittsburgh when the National Tour came through. I’d definitely remember something like that. The only time the curtains closed was at the end of Act 1, and again at the end of the show before curtain call.

It's currently booked through mid-August with a month-long stop in Toronto. My guess would be that would be the end of it's life as an Equity tour. I could see NETworks trying to eek another year out of it as a non-Equity tour and hitting all those tertiary markets where the average patron base would lap up any production of a Rodgers and Hammerstein show.

faceleg said: "This was an onstage curtain that was used several times during scene changes."

Sorry, but I just don’t remember an onstage curtain during scene changes either. I’m sure I would have found this annoying as well if it was done constantly. Maybe someone else who has seen the tour in another city can chime in as well with their experience.

The curtain in the Bway production was beautiful: a shimmery red/ gold silk velvet with overpainting that could be frontlit or backlit and traveled on a traveler track across the stage to cinematically wipe from one scene to the next. A few beats with the young princes (the Puzzlement reprise was one) happened in front of the curtain in a kind of "in one". They would be stupid to omit that very effective and affordable set piece from the national tour.

Updated On: 1/23/18 at 08:55 PM

Does anyone know who long Jose Llana, and Laura Michelle Kelly are with the show?