50 Fun Facts About The King and I

In The King and I, which lively dance does Anna teach the King during the song Shall We Dance?

Polka is the dance, and when the King takes Anna by the waist it voices a love neither can speak aloud. The film version ranked 54th on AFI's list of the top 100 movie songs.

Which country banned the 1956 film The King and I for its portrayal of the real King Mongkut?

Thailand banned both the film and the stage musical in 1956, and most later screen versions too. The real Mongkut was a scholar who kept his kingdom independent as European empires closed in.

Which trademark look did Yul Brynner adopt, against his wishes, for The King and I on stage?

A shaved head became his trademark for life, yet he refused at first, sure he would look terrible. He gave in during the out-of-town tryouts and darkened his scalp with makeup.

Which US president politely declined elephants from Mongkut, the real monarch of The King and I?

Abraham Lincoln replied in 1862 that America's climate did not suit elephants and that steam engines already did the hauling. The offer had been addressed to his predecessor, who left office before it arrived.

Which ghost singer for several Hollywood stars sang Anna's songs in the 1956 film The King and I?

Marni Nixon was paid $10,000 and recorded side by side with the film's star so that speech could slide into song. She later sang for Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

In The King and I, which American novel, lent by Anna, does Tuptim turn into a ballet?

Uncle Tom's Cabin becomes a Siamese-style dance in which a runaway slave is saved and her royal pursuer drowns. Its blunt message against slavery displeases the King, to whom Tuptim was given as a gift.

In The King and I, which promise in Anna's contract does the King break, fuelling a long quarrel?

A house of her own is what Anna was promised, and she teaches the royal children proverbs and songs about home life to needle him. The King finally swears to provide it on the eve of the British visit.

Which American actress played Anna opposite Chow Yun-fat in the 1999 drama Anna and the King?

Jodie Foster starred in a version shot mostly in Malaysia. Like the musical before it, the film was refused a release in the kingdom it depicts.

King Mongkut, the real ruler behind The King and I, spent 27 years as what before taking the throne?

A Buddhist monk for 27 years, Mongkut left the monastery in 1851 to take the crown at 47. In those decades he studied Western languages, mathematics and astronomy.

In The King and I, which insulting label does the King try to disprove with a European banquet?

Barbarian is the word reaching London, where some want his kingdom made a British protectorate. So Anna and the royal wives stay up all night preparing to greet the envoy in European gowns.

In The King and I, Anna and her son Louis arrive by ship in which capital city to meet the King?

Bangkok moved mostly by boat in the 1860s, which is why the real Mongkut wanted his children's teacher lodged within walking distance of the palace.

In The King and I, Tuptim arrives as a gift to the King, escorted by Lun Tha, from which country?

The king of Burma sends Tuptim as a present, and the scholar who delivers her is the man she loves. Their secret meetings give the show its soaring love duets, since Anna and the King never sing of romance outright.

In The King and I, which crown prince ends the custom of kowtowing as his dying father looks on?

Chulalongkorn was a real pupil of Anna Leonowens and went on to reign for 42 years. As king he abolished prostration at court in 1873 and then, step by step, slavery itself.

In The King and I, which gift from the King does Anna hand back after he tries to whip Tuptim?

A ring is his thanks for the banquet's success, and Anna sends it back through the Kralahome once the King takes up the whip. She accepts it again at his deathbed.

In The King and I, the stern Kralahome who meets Anna's ship holds which office at court?

Prime minister is the Kralahome's rank. His only solo was cut during the out-of-town tryouts, and the actor, left without a note to sing, walked out of the show.

Which song opens The King and I, as Anna and her son hide their fear on reaching Siam?

I Whistle a Happy Tune sets up Anna in a single number: afraid, but determined not to show it. She reprises it alone late in the second act.

In The King and I, which ballad does Lady Thiang sing to win Anna's sympathy for the King?

Something Wonderful asks Anna to accept a flawed man for what he is, and it is the last music heard as he dies. In the film an unseen chorus sings it over the final scene.

Which song in The King and I, about Anna's late husband, took Hammerstein five weeks to write?

Hello, Young Lovers was the lyric Hammerstein thought his best, and he waited four days for Richard Rodgers to react. The verdict, tossed in at the end of a phone call, was that it was fine.

Which number is the King's only solo in The King and I, sung as he frets about changing times?

A Puzzlement keeps the clipped, article-free speech Hammerstein invented for the King, even set to music. In his final Broadway run in 1985, Yul Brynner was unable to sing it because of what was announced as a throat infection.

Which song in The King and I reuses a melody Richard Rodgers cut from South Pacific?

Getting to Know You began as a melody for the heroine of South Pacific, who was given a different song instead. Hammerstein wrote new words when the first act needed a number for Anna and the children.

Which Scottish-born star played Anna in the 1956 film The King and I at Yul Brynner's urging?

Deborah Kerr earned the third of her six Best Actress nominations as Anna and never won a competitive Oscar. The Academy made amends with an honorary award in 1994.

Which future star of West Side Story played the runaway Tuptim in the 1956 film The King and I?

Rita Moreno, a studio contract player, was invited only to test for the part and impressed the producers enough to win it. Her singing was dubbed, though she narrates the ballet herself.

Which director of the 1945 musical State Fair went on to make the 1956 film The King and I?

Walter Lang was nominated for the Best Director Oscar for it and lost to George Stevens for Giant. He had been turning out colourful musicals for the same studio since the 1940s.

Which Hollywood studio released the 1956 film The King and I months after its version of Carousel?

20th Century-Fox gave it a gala Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where the guests included a great-grandson of the real King Mongkut.

Which screenwriter, later a Hitchcock collaborator, adapted The King and I for the 1956 film?

Ernest Lehman kept close to the stage script and won the Writers Guild award for the year's best written musical. Three years later he wrote North by Northwest.

The King and I and Carousel were the only films shot in which short-lived widescreen process?

CinemaScope 55 used film 55 mm wide, yet neither picture was released that way: both went out as ordinary 35 mm prints. The original large negatives were finally restored in 2005.

Which film beat The King and I, Giant and The Ten Commandments to Best Picture for 1956?

Around the World in 80 Days took Best Picture, though the two films tied for the most wins of the night with five Oscars each. All five nominees that year were large-scale epics shot in colour.

The star of the 1956 film The King and I lost the Best Actress Oscar but won at which awards?

The Golden Globes also named the film the year's best musical or comedy. At the Oscars she lost to Ingrid Bergman, whose character in Anastasia happened to be called Anna too.

Which costume designer won a Tony and then an Oscar for dressing The King and I on stage and screen?

Irene Sharaff built Anna's stage gowns on such a scale that they weighed 75 pounds apiece. Her use of silks from the country where the story is set started a trend in fashion and interior decoration.

Which Irish-born star was cast as Anna in the 1956 film The King and I until its composer objected?

Maureen O'Hara lost the part when Richard Rodgers would not agree to her casting. Singer Dinah Shore was also considered before the film's leading man got the co-star he wanted.

Which British stage star, for whom The King and I was written, died during its first Broadway run?

Gertrude Lawrence won the Tony as Anna, collapsed after a matinee and died three weeks later of an undiagnosed liver cancer. She was buried in the ball gown she wore in the second act.

Which Broadway star recommended her Lute Song co-star Yul Brynner for The King and I?

Mary Martin also put her own money into the show as an investor. By his account, he was a busy television director who had to be talked into going back on stage.

Which English actor was first choice for The King and I on stage, having played the monarch on film?

Rex Harrison was already booked, so the stage role went to a little-known actor instead. It was his 1946 film, Anna and the King of Siam, that showed the writers how the book could work as a musical.

Which American author, a former missionary in Siam, wrote the novel behind The King and I?

Margaret Landon was not even invited to the Broadway opening night. Her book, Anna and the King of Siam, eventually sold over a million copies.

Which Broadway theatre, the original home of Oklahoma!, staged the 1951 premiere of The King and I?

St. James was the venue, and the show stayed for 1,246 performances, then the fourth-longest run of any Broadway musical. Heavy rain stopped just in time for the first-night crowd to arrive dry.

Which songwriter turned down The King and I before Rodgers and Hammerstein agreed to write it?

Cole Porter said no, and the star's lawyer was about to try Noël Coward when she met Oscar Hammerstein's wife in Manhattan. Both writers' wives had read the novel years earlier and urged it on their husbands.

Yul Brynner won his 1952 Tony for The King and I in which category?

Best Featured Actor was his category because Anna was the star part and the King was written as support. By the 1985 revival he so dominated the show that he received a special Tony.

Yul Brynner played the King in The King and I on stage roughly how many times between 1951 and 1985?

About 4,600 is right: his 4,625th and final performance came on June 30, 1985, less than four months before his death. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer on the day of his 4,000th.

Which New York City Ballet choreographer created the dances for The King and I on stage and screen?

Jerome Robbins was hired for a single ballet and asked to stage every other number too, though the writers had planned little dancing. He later directed West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof.

Which La Bamba star made his Broadway debut as the King in the 1996 revival of The King and I?

Lou Diamond Phillips earned a Tony nomination as the King, and the production won the Tony for best revival. The staging had begun in Australia five years earlier, with Hayley Mills as Anna.

Which star of The Last Samurai played the King in the 2015 Broadway revival of The King and I?

Ken Watanabe earned a Tony nomination as the King in a production that won four Tonys, including best revival. He returned to the role when the staging moved to the London Palladium in 2018.

Which Soviet-born ballet star played the King in a 1989 North American tour of The King and I?

Rudolf Nureyev spent 24 weeks touring the United States and Canada in the part, in a staging that kept the original 1951 choreography. He had defected to the West in 1961.

Which future Rebel Without a Cause star played the crown prince in Broadway's first The King and I?

Sal Mineo started as an extra, became an understudy and finally took over as the heir to the throne. The show's leading man mentored him, beginning a friendship that lasted more than a decade.

Which later Pink Panther regular was the King in London's first The King and I?

Herbert Lom opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in October 1953, opposite Valerie Hobson in her final role. He first played Chief Inspector Dreyfus, his best-known part, in 1964.

Which future Glee star made her Broadway debut as a royal child in the 1996 The King and I?

Jenna Ushkowitz went on to play Tina Cohen-Chang in Glee from 2009, earning a Grammy nomination along the way. She later returned to Broadway in Waitress.

Which future Harry Potter film regular played Anna's son Louis in the 1999 drama Anna and the King?

Tom Felton played the boy two years before his first appearance as Draco Malfoy. The real Louis returned to Siam as an adult and founded a trading company that kept his name for over a hundred years.

Which singer's 1985 medley from The King and I plays over the credits of the 1999 animated film?

Barbra Streisand recorded the medley for The Broadway Album, and it closes a cartoon that added a dragon to the story. The president of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization called approving the film his biggest mistake.

The real Anna of The King and I was running a small school in which British colony when hired?

Singapore was where the King's agent found her, a recent arrival in a small British community. She asked for $150 a month and settled for $100 and a home near the palace.

The real Anna of The King and I hid her Indian birth by claiming to come from which part of Britain?

Wales, and specifically Caernarfon, was her story, and the town long claimed her as a famous native. The deception came to light only long after her death, well after the musical was written.

Mongkut, the real King of The King and I, caught fatal malaria on a trip to observe what?

A solar eclipse on 18 August 1868 appeared just where Mongkut had calculated, and he invited European guests to a remote village to watch. He died six weeks later in the capital.