The King and I

The King and I is a much loved and well-known staple of many musical theatre societies, with so many wonderful numbers for the audience to enjoy.

Michael Cairns played the King with authority, acting the part proficiently, giving us the many sides of the King's character. Pamela Bell played Anna Leonowens strongly, singing well, building up the relationship with the King throughout and forming a good rapport with the wives and children.  Both performers enjoying every minute of playing these roles, and it showed.

Kai Nicholas (Louis Leonowens) showed great stage presence, great singing and fine diction and was well supported by Zach Sim (Prince Chulalongkorn) who also performed his numbers with style.  Lucy Thompson played the proud first wife, Lady Thiang  with feeling, and her “Something Wonderful” was, for me a show stopper.  The Kralahome (Phil Park) was played with the austerity the role requires, never coming out of character once. 

Ellie Simons (Tuptim) acted well, but did find the vocal numbers a little difficult on the performance I saw, this may have been due to it being a matinee, she came into her own as the narrator for the ballet, delightfully choreographed by Danielle Carter. Daniel Evens as Lun Tha sang and acted well. The other small roles, Captain Orton and Sir Edward Ramsay (Terry Minter), Interpreter (Clare Steele), Phra Alack (Keiron Clark) were all well cast.

As ever, the audience loved The March of the Siamese Children with its usual cuteness factor of 10. When I was told that there were thirty eight children in the show, I did wonder how long this scene would last, but I was as captivated as the rest of the audience, and the time flew by.  The girl playing Princess Ying Yaolack deserves a special mention for her diction and clarity of voice.

The set was a fixed set, with a few permanently fixed gold statues/dressings with smaller props used for the scene changes. This worked well within the limitations of the venue (thank you stage crew for the pre-show tour of the stage area), and the company should be applauded for their creativity in their realisation of the set. The costumes were excellent. The lighting was good, but in some scenes a little sparse, “We Kiss in the Shadow” was taken a little too literally — though in some cases the performers did shy away from the light.

Considering the orchestra only had six musicians, they created a sound well suited to the Rogers and Hammerstein score — well done.

This was a well-directed, well-choreographed, well-musically directed production. Congratulations to Nerissa Nicholas, Danielle Carter and Anthea Bremner on a great production.

Thank you Millom Amateur Dramatic Society for your hospitality.
 

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