THE KING AND I
THE KING AND I, John Frost and Opera Australia at Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 7 September – 30 October 2014. Photography by Brian Geech: above – Lisa McCune and Teddy Tahu Rhodes: right – Lisa McCune
It’s probably true Opera Australia can’t win with their production of The King and I.
On one hand, the patronising attitudes and lazy stereotypes of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 musical stick out like a sore thumb among an audience for whom Thailand is no longer a particularly foreign destination. On the other, a King and I without the exotic trappings of “The Orient” – no matter how wrong and clichéd they may be – is unthinkable, particularly to those raised on the gloriously lavish 1956 film starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr (on which this stage version is closely modeled and is little changed since its Adelaide premiere some two decades ago).
So what to do? Director Christopher Renshaw has opted for lavish, and it’s as sumptuous and exotic and enchanting as you would expect. If there are any concerns about the show’s appropriateness – or lack thereof – it appears he is not particularly concerned with them.
Instead, the set by Brian Thomson is a magnificent confection of elephant motifs and gold temple decorations, the costumes (Roger Kirk) a rainbow of exotic silks through which Anna’s enormous crinoline dress cuts an elegant swathe, and music is – as always – a dream.
As Anna Leonowens, the English governess to The King of Siam’s many children, Lisa McCune is immensely appealing: feisty, generous and warm, and she makes light work of the show’s two best-known songs Getting to Know You and Shall We Dance?
Similarly excellent are Shu-Cheen Yu as the King’s first wife, Lady Thiang, whose rendition of Something Wonderful has the audience spellbound, and Jenny Liu as Burmese princess Tuptim, who is secretly in love with Lun Tha (Adrian Li Donni). Both Liu and Li Donni have lovely voices and their duets, We Kiss in a Shadow and I Have Dreamed are a highlight.
There are also the King’s children, led by the solemn Prince Chulalongkorn (Jaya Soewito-Martin alternating with Trystan Go and Ethan Puse) who are impossibly cute; and some inventive staging and fabulous dancing (choreography by Susan Kikuchi) in The Small House of Uncle Thomas, a show-within-a-show staged by the Court in the second act.
Yet despite all that, this King and I - in the 21st century - can’t help feel a little icky. Putting aside the controversy over casting the white Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the King of Siam, he and the other Siamese characters have all been lumbered with ridiculous faux accents, which, no matter how “exotic” they might have seemed in 1956, veer dangerously close to mocking now.
Tahu Rhodes’ portrayal of the King doesn’t help much either. While possessed of bucketloads of charisma and a voice that’s nothing short of superb, his deliberately broken English occasionally comes across as primitive and cartoonish rather than commanding.
Of course, the vast majority of the audience isn’t going to give two hoots about whether the musical is insensitive or not, this crowd is there for the music and the memories and the spectacle of it all, and on that account it succeeds gloriously. Just don’t look too closely.
