The King and I tour
August 1989 to February 1990
The King and I is the fifth musical by the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and tells the story of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. With choreography by Jerome Robbins and starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, it premiered on Broadway in 1951 and ran for nearly three years, winning Tony Awards for its leading actors and for Best Musical.
The story was immortalised in film in 1956, with Yul Brynner in the title role. The King followed Brynner throughout his life: he played the role 4,625 times.
Nureyev was first approached to play the King in 1979 but turned it down, not wanting a distraction from his dancing career. In 1989, with a tense dispute ongoing about the renewal of his contract at the Paris Opéra, Nureyev signed a three-year deal to appear in a new production in the United States. Nureyev was guaranteed an annual income of over a million dollars, increasing in years two and three.
The production opened in Toronto on 29 August 1989. While Nureyev’s physical resemblance to Brynner was noted by reviewers, Nureyev insisted he was not trying to impersonate the original cast, but the King of Siam himself. Julie Kavanagh, in her authorised biography, reports that he told a friend ‘King is like me. He loves absolute power and control. He has burning desire to learn everything’.
The general view was that despite his charisma and presence, Nureyev was ill-suited to musical comedy, nor had he focussed sufficiently on adapting his style and skills to the demands of the role. The final performance took place on 11 February 1990 in San Francisco, when the show closed in response to both the critical response and poor box-office takings.