West End King and I

[rjm516]

Posted: 6/21/18 at 11:02am

It starts tonight! But am I missing something or has there still been no official word about Ruthie? She's still on their website, but the last news was that that report of her indeed coming over and sharing the role was made prematurely.

[binau]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 4:11pm

Apparently Ruthie did not perform at the first preview. Seeing the show on the weekend and will 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 11:14pm

We are absolutely blown away by your tremendous response! Thank you all for your support, it really does mean the world to us- We can't wait tonight for our second ever performance at

https://twitter.com/KingandIWestEnd

Updated On: 6/22/18 at 11:14 PM

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 11:55pm

Does the London Palladium have a thrust stage like LCT, or has this been staged in a more traditional proscenium setting like the tour?

London is lucky to be getting this production.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 11:56pm

It's a traditional theater, but not sure what they've done with the space? I'd assume it's more like the tour, but then again, I never saw the tour, so can't comment. Can't wait to see pictures though! 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 12:51am

RippedMan said: "It's a traditional theater, but not sure what they've done with the space? I'd assume it's more like the tour, but then again, I never saw the tour, so can't comment. Can't wait to see pictures though!"

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 1:11am

Makes me want to see it again! Does it still have the big boat? Wonder if it's basically just the tour set re-used? 

[Danster]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 4:33am

I hope its filmed for a theatrical release. 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 12:46pm

TodayTix - Interview with Kelli O'Hara.   Illustrated.  Very illustrated.

https://www.todaytix.com/insider/london/posts/getting-to-know-the-king-and-i-star-kelli-ohara?utm_campaign=lon_insider_kellioharainterview&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=friends

 

[MannPhan24601]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 1:05pm

Keep wondering why Ruthie Ann  is still listed everywhere.Wonder when they will confirm if she will be in the production or not.I can't imagine her doing it at all

[binau]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 3:32pm

Ruthie is not in the show tonight. Her replacement is adequate but it’s not quite the warm, heart breaking performance I can hear Ruthie gave from the cast recording.

There is a big boat. The audience seemed impressed by it.

Kelli is great. A perfectly nuanced vocal performance and as many layers in her acting as the role allows.  Ken has awful diction but has his funny moments and there is a little bit of chemistry between the leads. Not loads. But enough. The Tuptim didn’t quite nail her first solo but was perfect by Kiss In The Shadows. 

Personally, I would find this quite a boring night without Kelli. I don’t think the show is in quite as good a shape as I imagine it was in NYC. But it is an early preview, and it isn’t over yet.

Updated On: 6/23/18 at 03:32 PM

[JBC3]

Posted: 6/23/18 at 4:36pm

Comments about first previews starting to show up on Theatre Monkey.

http://theatreboard.co.uk/thread/3065/king-london-palladium-2018?page=23

[binau]

Posted: 6/24/18 at 4:18am

When Tupkim gets captured and Kelli is terrified at what the king is going to do it felt so real. It made the moment genuinely intense. Also, I don’t know if it was intentional but when Anna and the King sit together on the bench for the first time you could see her move just ever so slightly away from him, as if there was a little bit of attraction she didn’t want to think about.

Despite having such a powerful voice, it is really awesome that she knows when to pull it back into incredibly quiet introspective moments vs have it blaring out.

I still think it was probably Bridges she deserved it for, but she was able to make Anna feel like a completely realised person. I think that’s a pretty decent effort when you’re working with 70 year old material (even if it was ahead of its time).

I can’t say anyone else, including Ken, quite achieves the same.

[rjm516]

Posted: 6/24/18 at 9:33am

Hi! So I got to see this last night, and just to answer my original question, Ruthie was not in it and the staff members I asked about her had ZERO idea what I was talking about when I asked if she would be in it at some point. I think the answer is a hard no, but maybe they feel disrespectful removing her from the programme/cast list and stuff? Or maybe they're hoping for her to join for the later half of the run. Also I kind of wish the programme had a tribute to her, or at least a mention of love in the director's note. 

As for the show - Kelli is even more exquisite that she was on Broadway. Her voice on "Hello Young Lovers" was pure ecstasy. 

But the show itself is not as good as it was. The stage and theatre is too different to have the big impressive boat that they did on Broadway (and the budget not accommodating for it, I'm sure) so I think they did what they did on tours, a decent boat that is pretty well done for normal productions but compared to the Lincoln Center magic is kind of blah. It feels MUCH campier, and considering the audience reaction (booing at certain mean actions, ooo-ing at romantic moments, clapping along to music), I think Brits are treating it like they're at a pantomine, and it starts to feel like one. Just a little bit campier, more amateur, and not as classy as it was at LCT. It also feels SUPER long, at 2:55. I don't remember it feeling so long on Broadway. Aside from Kelli and Ken (who is still hard to understand but is hilarious and great in his book scenes), the cast kind of feels B-level, not the highest calibre of performer that you'd expect (but very typical in my experience for West End).

[Melissa25]

Posted: 6/24/18 at 9:51am

OMG - those photos are great!

[Blue_Lotus]

Posted: 6/24/18 at 2:04pm

Melissa25 said: "OMG - those photos are great!

"

That photo! Gorgeous!!

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/25/18 at 1:18pm

If I remember correctly there was some criticism over Kelli’s accent during the broadway run. Has that been fixed for London or was there no problem at all?

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/25/18 at 1:22pm

Call_me_jorge said: "If I remember correctly there was some criticism over Kelli’s accent during the broadway run. Has that been fixed for London or was there no problem at all?"

That reminds me of this Bernadette Peters gem:

https://youtu.be/Tq72aBL7GLY?t=67

That question also reminds me of me reading a recap of Series 2 of Top of the Lake and the guy doing the recap at the very end asks "So, what do we think of Elisabeth Moss's accent this time around?" since a lot of people took issue with it the first time around.

Updated On: 6/25/18 at 01:22 PM

[binau]

Posted: 6/25/18 at 1:27pm

Very very very occasionally I thought I could hear some American accent skipping through - it’s really hard to get rid of some of those vowels. But overall, I thought it was perfectly fine. And I’m not American. But I didn’t really have any issue with her accent in Bridges, or Bernadette’s accent in A Little Night Music so maybe I’m easily pleased.

Updated On: 6/26/18 at 01:27 PM

[enjoyable2]

Posted: 6/25/18 at 2:07pm

I have never heard a Broadway voice as beautiful as Kelli O'Hara's.  Some came close - Rita Gardner and Victoria MAllory were gorgeous.  But I  am so entranced by her singing that I'd forget what an accent is. 

[binau]

Posted: 6/28/18 at 9:33am

The other controversy of this production is that the orchestra has apparently been substantially reduced since Broadway. I personally didn't notice it sounding particularly thin, though.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/3/18 at 11:43pm

Well, The King and I officially opened on the West End last night. The reviews were generally sub-rave, with that problem of politics getting in the way. Four stars almost all, based on what seems to be the Brit five star ranking system. The Guardian only three, as that critic was particularly unhappy with the notion that the Western Imperialists had anything to teach the good Siamese 150 years ago. The abject inferiority of women. Slavery. Slavery was pretty bad, no, and the UK had abolished it back in the 30s. But let the critics try to have their relevance.

One thing that the critics in London got right, I believe, is that the 2nd Act ballet should be cut back to five minutes. In fact, if the ballet had been five minutes in New York, The King and I might have run longer than South Pacific.

Ken was congratulated for his humor, and his angst as the king, and not so much for his voice. But he sings little. From reading these reviews, almost shadowing the reaction in New York, a few were confounded by his diction but a majority did not mention it as a problem.

Kelli remained the present and future champ, with not a harsh word to be found anywhere against her. The critics must have had that above photograph of her taped to their walls

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+king+and+i+west+end+reviews&tbm=nws&source=univ&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL2rPArYTcAhWttVkKHcfoBsgQt8YBCDcoAQ&biw=1526&bih=747

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 7/3/18 at 11:45pm

I'm just curious, has Ruthie gone on?

[dbird]

Posted: 7/4/18 at 3:16am

Sondheimite said: "I'm just curious, has Ruthie gone on?"

I haven't seen any reports about it up until the reviews started mentioning her. Some reviews are talking about Naoko and the other half about Ruthie which is awkward at best. 

I am certain Naoko did all performance during the first week and Monday as well. She also tweeted ahead of press night so I wouldn't be surprised if the reviews were mentioning Ruthie incorrectly. My bet is that Naoko has done all performances and people just don't know what they're talking about. When I went, I couldn't see a cast list for that night's performance and there were no announcements or slips in the programmes either. 

 

 

[bwayboy22]

Posted: 8/2/18 at 3:15am

Does anyone have any updates as to whether Ruthie has gone on at all?