—GREAT PERFORMANCES Presents Third Annual “Broadway’s Best” Lineup Featuring Tony Award-winning Productions—
Lincoln Center Theater’s critically acclaimed 2015 production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic 1951 musical directed by Bartlett Sher (“South Pacific”) went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival.
Based on a true story, the year is 1862, and East and West collide when British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens arrives in Siam (modern day Thailand) to take up her post instructing the royal household of children from the King’s several wives.
Despite her sharp wit and strong will, nothing has prepared Anna for the lessons this rich and complicated new land has to teach her—or for the powerful connection she will forge with its imperious but conflicted King.
The score features a treasure trove of timeless Rodgers & Hammerstein hits including “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “We Kiss in a Shadow,” “Getting to Know You,” “Something Wonderful,” “I Have Dreamed” and “Shall We Dance?”
With a cast of over 50 people, this “first-rate, sumptuous” (The New York Times) production was “too beautiful to miss” (New York magazine).
The production was recorded during its 2018 run in London’s West End with original Lincoln Center Theater cast members Ken Watanabe as the King and Kelli O’Hara in her Tony-winning performance as Mrs. Anna, along with Ruthie Ann Miles as “head wife” Lady Thiang, who won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a musical.
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Credits:
GREAT PERFORMANCES is produced by THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET For GREAT PERFORMANCES: Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer. For "Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I": Music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based upon the novel “Anna and the King of Siam” by Margaret Landon. Directed for the stage by Bartlett Sher with choreography by Christopher Gattelli based upon the original choreography by Jerome Robbins. A production of Trafalgar Entertainment Group and Trafalgar Releasing, directed for the screen by Gary Halvorson; Sir Howard Panter, Dame Rosemary Squire, David Lazar, Marc Allenby, Alice De Rosa and Austin Shaw are producers.
