Review: The King & I – an outstanding triumph

Edinburgh Playhouse

They don’t make musicals like this anymore - there’s no need when the original is still pulling in huge audiences and providing such rich entertainment.

Bartlett Sher’s touring production is fabulous.

It’s a modern take on a classic from the golden age of Broadway, rich with perfectly pitched humour, dazzling costumes, and, of course, an immaculate musical score from Rodgers and Hammerstein.

It has a lot to live up to. The show is Hollywood and Broadway gold, and is synonymous with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr.

But this production is a triumph.

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The opening scene was genuinely stunning - the sight of a giant steamboat rolling into the harbour was straight out of 1950s Hollywood. By contract, the rest of the sets, exquisite though they are, perhaps didn’t quite have the same wow factor.

It takes a show audiences know and love, and fills it with lots of humour, colour and spectacle.

The story is one of a clash of cultures as a British teacher, Anna Leonowens, is hired by the King of Siam to teach his many off-spring, and Annalene Beechey and Jose Llana were outstanding in the lead roles.

Beechey gave Anna charm and warmth as well as a sense of old-fashioned British common sense as she adjusted to wholly different culture.

Llana made the barbarian King rather likeable with a gentle touch, and humour - and the chemistry between the two was clear for all to see, making their scenes together hugely entertaining.

The running “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera “ gag was also great fun, and picked up by a number of characters to good effect.

There were excellent performances too, notably Cezerah Bonner as Lady Thaing who led a fabulous Western People Funny to launch act two, while the kids - well they were cute as buttons.

And the audience loved it - nigh on all three hours of it!

The standing ovations for the two leads were thoroughly deserved.