These days, audiences should approach “The King & I” cautiously. Luckily, director Bartlett Sher did, and faced down the show’s trickiest issues. His carefully rethought, yet entirely faithful revival of a classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical was originally staged for Lincoln Center in 2015 and is now on a national tour, which stops at The Bushnell through June 4.
Sher has created the thinking person’s “King & I.” A show which, in the wrong hands can be a procession of offensive racial stereotypes, has become a cultural studies exercise where differences can be amusing but are respected.
Sher’s production also takes care to lessen the show’s depiction of violence against women. It helps that Jose Llana is a much less threatening figure than the pitbull-esque Yul Brynner, who originated the role of The King of Siam in 1951 (beginning with the out-of-town try-out at the Shubert in New Haven). Set against Laura Michelle Kelly’s mature, composed schoolteacher Anna Leonwens, Llana is not so much imposing as he is pesky. His boyishness makes his confrontations with Anna funny rather than fraught, though that same liveliness becomes a liability when the King must suddenly appear frail late in the show.
Flitting from drama to romantic intrigue to comic dialogues to metaphorical pageantry, “The King & I” is nonetheless a very fluid and direct piece of storytelling. It charts the relationship between Anna and the King as she shifts from his employee to his critic and ultimately his confidante. The show’s mid-19th century setting allows for frequent references to Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. A centerpiece of the second act is a singular Siamese take on the once insanely popular stage version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It’s wonderful to see that routine done in Hartford, just a mile and a half from Stowe’s historic house.
Sher makes sure that each scene earns its place in the show. Some bits are built up with fancy designs, while others are enlivened with acrobatics and dancing.
Petticoats and hoop skirts play a large role in this production. When The Kings wives try some on, it’s a big extended silent comedy routine. Anna wears hers throughout the show — when the King circles her warily, he really has to circle her.
What stands out most about this tour, even more than its extravagant female undergarments, is its old-school spectacle. A ship sails out onto the stage in the show’s first moments, then cleverly gets pulled in half and turned around to become small buildings on the dock of Bangkok. There are huge painted backdrops of the kind you rarely see since theater projections became all the rage.
Such elaborate trappings don’t come without problems. One backdrop got stuck on opening night and didn’t get lifted away until the middle of the next scene. Translucent curtains let in enough light that you can see set changes happening behind them. But the grandeur is worth the occasional snags.
Just as elegant as the scenery is the 17-piece orchestra conducted by Gerald Steichen, who used to conduct pops concerts for the Hartford and New Haven symphony orchestras. This rich ensemble reminds you how sonorous and exciting a musical score can sound when the strings, horns and percussion are all real and not processed through a synthesizer. When the music swells under the young lovers Lun Tha (Kavin Panmeechao) and Tuptim (Manna Nichols) during their enchanting duet “I Have Dreamed,” the effect is heavenly. And when Llana and Kelly sway around the room to “Shall We Dance?,” the dance music is genuinely inviting.
Finally there’s the supporting cast and chorus — dozens of men and women being townsfolk, guards and wives of the King (the ones who are “in favor,” we are told). There are seven children — as many as are in “The Sound of Music.” They fill the stage with dance, harmony and fancy fan-twirling.
A lot to like, in a show that’s no longer about dislike. Contentiousness has been replaced with consideration. Don’t be afraid of this “The King & I.” It whistles a happy tune.
THE KING & I, directed by Bartlett Sher, plays through June 4 at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Remaining performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $36.50 to $121.50. 860-987-5900, bushnell.org.
