New Musical in Manhattan

The King and I (music by Richard Rodgers; book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd; based on Margaret Landon's novel, Anna and the King of Siam; produced by Rodgers & Hammerstein) may not quite be Rodgers & Hammerstein at their best, but it is musicomedy at its most charming. Distance lends enchantment doubly--in time as well as space--to the story of an English widow who went to Siam in the 1860s to act as governess to the King's large brood, and found her most eager, childish and unruly pupil in the King himself.

The King and I has plenty of background to draw upon: the splendor of a royal court, the color of a still half-savage country, the flavor of a bygone age, the piquancy of a polygamous household. And the clash between a potentate Oriental enough to think women a mere plural for whim and a woman British enough not to lower her eyes or her colors before royalty makes for good dramatic comedy.

This battle of sexes, collision of races and conflict of ideas, this spectacle of a king learning to govern from a governess, is sometimes touching, and far less insipid than the usual musicomedy romance. Gertrude Lawrence plays Anna with bright, at times even glaring, charm, and with the versatility of a governess particularly qualified to teach singing & dancing. Yul Brynner plays the King with scowling magnetism--with a born fierceness of manner that cannot hide his growing moral confusion.

The rest of The King and I ripples shimmeringly along. The Rodgers score--which eschews exotic Bali-Hijinks--is thoroughly pleasant, with the gaiety of I Whistle a Happy Tune, the lilt of Getting to Know You, the marchlike verve of The Royal Siamese Children, which introduces to Anna and the audience a long procession of beguiling youngsters. Jo Mielziner's sets are gracefully evocative, Irene Sharaff's costumes steadily gorgeous. There is a delightful Jerome Robbins ballet--a daintily menacing Siamese version, all stylized and symbolic, of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The King and I would do better with a less solemn ending. Otherwise, under John van Druten's deft staging, it is all scent and glitter, ritualized movement and high barbaric style.

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