March 29, 1951: “The King and I” Premieres On Broadway

March 29, 1951: The King and I premieres at the St. James Theatre in New York, based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. That novel was filmed in 1946, with Rex Harrison as King Mongkut and Irene Dunne as Anna Leonowens.

Both the novel and the musical are full of baloney. But then, the real Anna was something of a con artist herself. Born in 1831 in India, to an English father serving in the army there and a mother who may have been mixed-race, she made up a backstory for herself to hide her true background. She became a teacher, married, had 4 children, and was widowed. She spent some time teaching in Australia and Singapore before being hired by the royal court of Siam in 1862. (The country's name was changed to Thailand in 1939.)

Mongkut was born in 1804, and became King, under the regnal name Rama IV, in 1851. He wanted to give his 39 wives, his concubines, and his 82 children a modern Western education on scientific secular lines, which earlier missionaries' wives had not provided.

Leonowens served at court until 1867, nearly 6 years, first as a teacher, and later as language secretary for the King. Although her position carried great respect, and even a degree of political influence, she did not find the terms and condition her employment to her satisfaction. And, despite her position at the king's court, she was never invited into the social circle of the British merchants and traders of the area. She and the King were never romantically involved. She left not long before his death in 1868. In later life, she was a lecturer of Indology and a suffragist. She died in Montreal in 1915.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote the musical, and Jerome Robbins choreographed it. It starred Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. Both would be touched by tragedy with the play: Lawrence already had cancer, and died on September 6, 1952; while Brynner, a lifelong smoker, began playing the role again in 1977, and did so almost continuously despite his own cancer diagnosis in 1983. In spite of the pain, he never let up, doing the full "Shall We Dance?" number with Mary Beth Peil. He died on October 10, 1985, having played Mongkut for the 4,625th and last time on June 30.

Brynner also starred in the 1956 film version, with Deborah Kerr as Anna. As with Natalie Wood in the film version of West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Kerr's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon. Sadly, these would not remain the most famous recordings by someone named Nixon.

The St. James Theatre still stands, at 246 West 44th Street. Among its other original productions: A theatrical version of Richard Wright's Native Son in 1941, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! in 1943, Where's Charley? in 1948, The Pajama Game in 1954, Flower Drum Song in 1958, Becket (not a musical) in 1960, Hello, Dolly! in 1964, Barnum in 1980, and the 1st rock opera to be turned into a Broadway play, The Who's Tommy, in 1993. When COVID shut Broadway down, it was hosting a live musical version of Disney's Frozen. It had been running for 2 years, but they had to let it go.

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March 29, 1951 was a Thursday. Nick Ut, the Vietnamese photographer who took the photo of Kim Phuc running through her napalm-bombed village, was born on this day. This was also the day that José Ferrer became the 1st Hispanic actor to receive an Academy Award. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals, 102-80 at the State Fair Coliseum in Syracuse, New York. And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Rochester Royals, 76-73 at the Minneapolis Auditorium.

There was a Stanley Cup Playoff game that night: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 1-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. It took until 2:20 of the 3rd overtime before a goal could be found, and Maurice "the Rocket" Richard of the Canadiens found it.