The King and I

It’s always a treat to visit this Company in York’s magnificent Theatre Royal but on this occasion the opulence extended to the set (Scenic Projects), a fine representation of an Oriental Royal Palace. It’s not always that this extends to the flooring but what an improvement it makes.

The production was described to me as virtually a joint effort between the main Society and its Youth section, the younger members contributing greatly to its success as the Siamese children whilst some of their older colleagues provided the King with some of his wives. Since John Hall (in the latter part) also acts as the Director of their own youth productions, it was all very appropriate and they are certainly accustomed to taking orders from him!        

Standards are always high with this Society, particularly when it comes to attention to detail and this was a prime example. Wigs were superb and costumes were little short of spectacular, regularly flooding the stage with colour.  It was pleasing to see that the King for once had shunned the usual shaven-headed look and instead simply trimmed his hair with a knot on top, this being his interpretation of the character rather than simply a copy of an actor who had played the part previously.  There was also a novel start to the evening as the overture was accompanied by credits superimposed on rehearsal footage, which at least succeeded in keeping the audience quiet, not always the case in musicals.

The production was well cast, with a suitably pompous Kralahome (Geoff Turner) and Jack Porter showing appropriate “puzzlement” as the Prince, trying to reconcile occasionally conflicting advice from his father and his teacher.  Although there could have been a little more rapport between the young lovers, Tuptim and Lun Tha (Naomi Halliday and Richard Bayton), the former showed great skill in the narration of the lengthy ballet sequence, “the Small House of Uncle Thomas”. This was excellently choreographed by Sue Hawksworth.   Emma Dickinson as Anna gave another impressive performance, a splendid match for her excellent leading man. Anna and the King have been described as perhaps the most interesting couple in the Rodgers and Hammerstein repertoire and these fine performances made it easy to support this view.

With so many newer shows around, it was a pleasure to re-visit one of the Rodgers and Hammerstein favourites and it’s easy to see why many of their melodies are still popular, in this case some 66 years after they were first heard.  I’ve said it before but of how many of today’s shows will this be true?  I know that the greater abundance of musical theatre companies in York nowadays restricts the choice but, if this leaves the better shows to the companies with the experience to stage them as well as this, is it necessarily a bad thing?       

       

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.