Shall we dance?

Perhaps one of the most famous musical productions of all time, The King and I, comes to North Wales this month. Jasper Rees reports.

is the most sumptuous musical of them all. One of the great classic musicals from the “golden age” of Broadway shows with one of the finest scores ever written, Getting to Know You.

It opens on the deck of a ship as it snakes up river at dusk, heading for a glimmering royal palace in 19th Century Siam. No production of the timeless classic by Rodgers and Hammerstein has managed to lay on a feast for the eyes quite like the one now touring the UK, following its recordbreaking runs at the London Palladium and on Broadway.

The powerful spectacle staged by the acclaimed multi Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher now welcomes two new stars to lead roles famously occupied by many before , returns to the stage after many years to play Anna Leonowens, a widow from Victorian England who has travelled to Bangkok to

“I’d been wanting to do a musical for a while,” says Helen. “I was waiting for the right one to come along and just couldn’t say no. It’s just such a classical musical theatre part.”

Though better known for bringing babies into the world on TV, her first job after drama college was in the The Woman in White in 2004. She has since sung at the BBC’s VE Day 75th anniversary commemoration and on the cast album of

As for dancing, she took the dancefloor by storm on Strictly in Shall We Dance?”. In the show’s climactic song, Anna and the King dance a sweeping polka that is an ecstatic meeting of minds, hearts and, most of all, feet.

“When we do this incredible dance I wear this incredible dress,” she says. “I’m as big as a house. In the rehearsal room everybody has had to get out of the way. I lift up the skirt and drag scripts and tea cups with me along the way. It weighs ten pounds and it’s uncomfortable but this was the life of a Victorian woman.”

The role of the strutting, domineering King of Siam will always carry a trace memory of Yul Brynner, who clung to it tenaciously for 34 years and 4,600 performances. However, returning to the role is Broadway star Darren Lee, who has himself made the role his own since he first played it there in 2016. “I started my career primarily as a dancer so early on it was not on my radar,” says Lee. “But growing up as an Asian American performer you know that there is this role, and it sits within the top five to ten shows of classic musicals.”

With a stunning score, given the full velvet touch by a sublime orchestra, exquisite costumes, a stellar cast that discovers dark, rich, exotic layers through incredible storytelling and the most charming and endearing group of young children performers, you have the ultimate classical musical theatre show. It’s rare to feel such warmth and delight about a production but The King And I delivers that and so much more in abundance. n