The King and I - London Palladium / Tour / Dominion

Just announced as the Birmingham Christmas show for 2019 too. At the Alexandra from 10 December 2018 to 4 January 2020.

Tickets on sale tomorrow for Theatrecard holders (and the day after for non-Theatrecard holders).

Full tour dates here:

britishtheatre.com/the-king-and-i-uk-tour

Good to see it's doing long runs at a lot of of the venues.

One thing to note. Jose Llana and Annalene Beechey are only scheduled for the first three venues (Manchester, Dublin and Sunderland).

Lots of the Palladium cast returning for the tour, including the ensemble and roles like Orton/Ramsay.

And there's no one announced to play Lun Tha, Tuptim or Lady Thiang yet.

Why the long break over the summer? It's not unusual for there to be a pause in August, but June to October is a long time.

Does the tour continue overseas?

There's a direct train from Norwich to Liverpool, if that helps. I seem to think it runs via Ely and Peterborough.

Yes, it is odd that train journeys now take longer than in the days of steam! Part of the problem with this service is the reversal at Sheffield, which probably adds 25 or 30 minutes. On the plus side, there is the view of the famous crooked spire at Chesterfield, and the line betwixt Sheffield and Stockport is one of the most scenic in all England, with hills like nothing in East Anglia.

Have you thought about staying over and combining The King and I with the ground-breaking new West Side Story at the Royal Exchange?

Good news! BroadwayHD will add 'The King and I' before the end of the year


www.filmedonstage.com/news/37-exclusive-the-king-and-i-will-be-available-for-streaming-on-broadwayhd

I enjoyed the encore screening at my cinema on Thursday night. I've seen the show on stage once but a long time ago, so I couldn't really remember any of it. I liked it more than I thought I would, I don't generally like shows set a long time ago, and this is set even longer in the past, but it didn't seem dated to me. Obviously there was a lot of the politics of the time, but it didn't seem old fashioned. I loved Anna's dresses, one of the things I remembered from seeing it before, and I thought the children were excellent. I thought the first half felt about 10-15 minutes too long and was glad when it got to the interval, but felt refreshed for the second half. I went with my mum, who saw it at the Palladium with my grandma when Yul Brynner was in it, so it was nice for her to see it there again without having to go through the effort and expense of a trip to London.

How is that going to work given Kelli is doing Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway?

Haven’t seen it announced here, but the website has the full cast up for the UK tour.

kingandimusical.co.uk/cast-and-creatives/

Some changes to the previously announced cast. I see they’ve got a different Ramsay/Orton to previously announced. They’ve imported the Lun Tha from the US tour. And the cover Tuptim from London has moved up to lead for the tour.

Quite a few of the ensemble have continued from London, as have some of the Louises (as in the plural of Louis, looks odd written like that).

Maria Coyne is standby Anna.

Looks like being a strong cast.

It's also going to Mumbai, per Bartlett Sher at a talk at the Asia Society in NYC in Feb (I was there; I'm sure there's a video floating around).

And, some thoughts from the first preview (and a pretty much full house).

This was in good shape, but not completely polished yet. Some line slips and the biggest irritation, at least 20 times when microphones were turned on late or off early, including in some crucial moments like the final scene. Highly unprofessional.

It’s restaged to sort the smaller venues, similar but not identical to the US tour staging. Smaller ensemble and fewer children. The band sounded smaller but I didn’t get a good view (same conductor as London).

The main cast were all fine. The boy playing Louis came across as very nervous. I’ve seen both leads play the roles before and both were excellent again here and showed great chemistry together. Jose Llana, who must have played the King 500 times was perfect, well expressed mannerisms, clear diction, easily the best person to play the role.

One frustration, I got caught by the dynamic pricing so overpaid a lot (even with the TheatreCard discount). There are some excellent last minute prices (e.g. there was one unsold front row seat left tonight going at under £20). Still, third row view was perfect.

Running time, about three hours.

I’ll look forward to seeing this again in a few weeks when I hope the teething problems will have settled down.