Spring 1951. You’re at a performance of The King and I, the latest musical from Rodgers & Hammerstein. It features Gertrude Lawrence, one of the theater’s most dynamic stars, leading a Broadway musical for the first time in nearly a decade with a role custom tailored for her. She plays Anna Lenowens, a British woman in 1860s Thailand, then known as Siam, hired by King Mongkut to teach his wives and children. Anna’s fierce independence puts her at odds with the commanding (and charismatic) King. Lawrence enchants the audience with showcase after showcase: the sprightly and inspirational “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” the wistful ode to her deceased husband (“Hello Young Lovers”), the charming production number with the children and wives (“Getting to Know You”), and the frustration-fueled soliloquy (“Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?”). But as charming as Lawrence is, you’re perhaps even more taken in by the striking, though unfamiliar, Yul Brynner as the King. With a shaved head and open shirt, he is controlling, impish, frustrating, and irresistible. His and Anna’s relationship is strictly proper and professional…with a hint of romantic tension. In Act 2, the King hosts a banquet for British ambassadors to prove that Siam is civilized and does not need to become an English protectorate. The plan is successful, and as Anna and the King celebrate in the empty throne room, Anna describes the English manner of courtship. She sings an invitation to dance to an imaginary partner, and is soon lost in reverie. The King demands she teach him the dance, and she takes him by the hands, teaching him a polka. The King points out that the European visitors did not merely hold hands while they danced and places his hands on Anna’s hips—a simple gesture that is somehow more romantically charged than anything you’ve seen onstage before. They swirl around the stage, coming as close to admitting the attraction between them as they dare, and it’s absolutely glorious. (“Shall We Dance?”)

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