The King and I - London Palladium / Tour / Dominion

Think about it - what if I said to you that you have to work nearly 4 months straight without a single day off. Would you like it? I doubt it.

She's basically entitled to almost a third of the annual leave of someone on a year long contract, so she has to take it at some point, especially given employment laws are more generous here than in the US. When the exact dates get finalised is up to her and the producers, and probably also in this instance takes account of Ruthie's situation, so it may not have been possible to sort out until now. It's not the Kelli O'Hara show, it's not advertised as the Kelli O'Hara show, she's entitled to time off same as the next person - that doesn't change just because she has a Tony Award.

And presumably everyone who's moaning because she's dared to have a very few days off and let her standby go on would be the same people complaining if she burned herself out or wrecked her voice and couldn't do the entire last month of the run because she didn't have time off...

I really don't get the issue here - everyone's entitled to be disappointed if they don't see her, we've all missed stars before due to holidays or illness, but blaming her for daring to have a day off goes too far in my book. People take last-minute holidays all the time for all sorts of reasons, and the ones she has announced aren't even really last minute at all!

Completely agree from the POV of needing holiday rest time etc. Just don’t release a definitively worded statement that doesn’t mention that it’s tbc.

I agree with all you say.......if ............the Theatre email all those who've bought tickets and offer them an exchange. And yes I know an exchange may be of no use at all to someone who's paid for tranport and lodgings but nothings perfect.

So much better than calling in a "sickie" (Which is very difficult for a famous person to do), my personal peeve in ANY situation.

Thanks, it does a little, I don't understand why the difference for this show.

I haven't read all posts, I hope your tickets weren't for one of the shows Kelli is no longer performing in. It's awful when the other day she did say she only had the one day off too.

Agree 100%. Transparency is almost always the best approach.

As I pointed out previously, maybe they couldn't be any more organised than they have been - this production, through no-one's fault but a driver who should be jailed for a long time, has been in a very unique situation that has left a degree of uncertainty over casting. It could well be the case that they wanted to see what Ruthie wanted to do before they firmed up anyone else's holiday dates, as it would obviously assist if her previous cast mates were around when she came back. Of course there would always have come a point when Kelli would have had to take time off, but this production runs for a while yet, so they may well have been keeping it flexible for as long as possible.

This 

Kelli has been nominated for an Emmy award for her work in The Accidental Wolf, and the ceremony is on the 17th September - doing press for big award shows is likely be the reason for some of the dates she's missing 

This was one of the most dissapointing nights at the theatre I've ever had. Usually that would be the start of the joke to saying it was fabulous, but no, really, one of the crappest nights at the theatre.

Act I started off promising. Kelli is of course incredible. She was absolutely stellar throughout. She will get the Olivier and deservedly so. The other standout for me was Na-Young Jeon, who I thought was stunning! Her voice was beautiful. The rest of the cast were fine (no Ruthie, understandably so after a long week). I thought Ken was middle of the road. He is funny, but could not understand a word when he was singing. Cowtumes were beautiful. Set peaked at the boat and then all you get is a wall, some props rolled on and a gold sheet pulled back and forth. With all the reviews saying how lavish the set was, that was dissapointing.

Act 2 began, and as it did,the woman next to me stopped breathing and coming in and out in her seat. The family started running up and down the aisle getting help, the Ushers kept flashing torches in our direction and sorting it out. Eventually after about half an hour she was cartted off in a wheelchair. I know these things can't be helped, but we were asked to move up and down the aisle twice, and by the point of coming back into the show I was over it. I think it should of been handled better personally, as the rear to middle stalls were all distracted by thr drama unfolding. They should of paused the show for two minutes or something, Yes, this was WHILST the show was going on. I missed from the interval to some long ballet that took about a decade to get through. After the decade long ballet, this family that had moved from somewhere to in front of us ar the interval wouldn't shut up with their young hild complaining. Thoroughly a night ruined, I was tempted to leave midshow because I had no clue what was going on and didn't care anymore. Shall We Dance was stunning but I don't know if that was because of the rest of Act 2 being a let down or it is actually stunning.

I stood at the end for the two ladies mentioned prior. But in truth, Iliked the show enough but I found some of it boring in Act 1, only three songs I can remember, it is very middle ground R and H for me. Its worth it for Kelli's performance alone. Would I go back, sure, to give it a second cjance, but only if Kelli and Ruthie are on. But last night particularly, it was the biggest waste of time and money.

2.5/3 stars.

Oh if I had it my way, Kelli, Na-Young and Catherine Zuber will all be holding Olivier Awards come next year. Even with the distraction from the audience, I wouldn't throw many more their way in my opinion, but I completely understand this is not an opinion shared by many, and that's fine.