Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara will head the cast of a Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I next year at Lincoln Center.
Directed by Bartlett Sher, who won a Tony Award for his 2008 revival of South Pacific, the production will use Jerome Robbins's original choreography and Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations.
Meanwhile, 10,000 miles away, Lou Diamond Phillips is taking over the role of the King of Siam in another production of The King and I in Melbourne, Australia. Phillips is more than familiar with the role, having performed it over 550 times in the last Broadway revival, in 1996, opposite Donna Murphy.
In Melbourne he takes over from Jason Scott Lee who tore a calf muscle and has had to withdraw. "I am honored to once again inhabit the role of The King," Phillips said. "Since receiving the mantel from Mr. Brynner, I have great passion and respect for the role and am especially excited to bring my interpretation to a new continent." Phillips will appear in the Princess Theatre production July 10 - August 31.
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