CaymanianCompass Weekender Friday 6 November 1998 eking and 1
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Today's generation may know this classic musical from television movie channels. Many of their parents probably grew up humming the songs from the stage play (1951) and the movie's first release (1956).
But the story of the king of Siam and the English governess who taught his children goes back much further. Continued on page 2A FROM A1 History tells us that King Mongkut ascended the throne of Siam (now Thailand) in 1851. In his efforts to develop the country and help his people cope with inevitable European influences, he employed Western teachers and technical experts.
In 1862 he invited a young widow, Mrs. Anna Leonowens, to teach some of his 67 children. She stayed for five years, then later wrote two books about her experience.
According to a royal biographer, her accounts of Siamese court life were "greatly exaggerated" and her description of King Mongkut as a cruel tyrant was "totally unfair". In the 1940s, Margaret Landon wrote a novel based on those books, calling hers Anna and the King of Siam. Hollywood got a hold of it and, in 1946, did a black and white movie by the same name, starring Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne.
Critics hailed its story interest, with one calling it an "unusual and lavish drama tastefully handled and generally absorbing despite miscasting and several slow passages."
Meanwhile, the book was also read by a Broadway star, thought by some to be past her prime. Gertrude Lawrence apparently realised that the role of Anna could be her last big chance and she asked Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II to write a play for her.
They created The King and I, providing Miss Lawrence with one of her best-known successes and introducing the then unknown Yul Brynner as co-star. She died in 1952; he went on to play in his role 4,625 times. He also starred in the movie version opposite Deborah Kerr.
One writer asserted that Yul Brynner "switched the spotlight from Anna to the King by sheer force of personality and without any change in script."
The script and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein would have pleased King Mongkut and his biographer, for they certainly portray the ruler as intel- TO FACING PAGE
