Romance, palace intrigue, a pretty Welsh schoolteacher, and the King of Siam, all beautifully gift-wrapped in a fabulous score by Rodgers and Hammerstein and glorious orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. These are but a few of the elements that account for the success of director Bartlett Sher’s production of The King And I at Lincoln Center Theater, which won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Revival Of A Musical.
Sher worked with a quartet of Tony Award-winning designers—Donald Holder (lighting), Scott Lehrer (sound), Michael Yeargan (sets), and Catherine Zuber (costumes)—the same group that all won Tony Awards for their collaboration on Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of South Pacific in 2008. Now they have given The King And I the royal treatment, creating a jewel box setting filled with shades of gold, amber, amethyst, carnelian, ruby, and sapphire in both the lighting and costumes, the latter of which were awarded the 2015 Tony for Best Costume Design Of A Musical. Read about Holder's lighting, Yeargan's sets, and Lehrer's sound design.
Fit For A King
In researching the Tony Award-winning costumes for The King And I, Catherine Zuber found quite accurate sources for both the western and the Siamese costumes. “The court of Siam was photographed more than one would have imagined,” she reports. “There are wonderful portraits of the King during his lifetime, many portraits of his children, his wives, and various images of court life.”
Once the research was done, Zuber’s fabric choices reflected those that would have been available at that time, while Anna’s dresses are what she would have chosen due to the climate. “Her dresses, except for the gown, which is silk satin, are cotton gauze, voile, linen. For the King’s wives, the fabric choices are a variety of silks, cotton gauzes, linen gauze, and metallic bullion.”
The Fabrics Of Time
The color palette was influenced by researching fabrics of the time. “The wives needed to be seen as a group but also have individual qualities,” says Zuber. “The design team decided that the berry tones—blueberry, blackberry, raspberry—would work well against the palette of the set. The final set of costumes changes to white to reflect the solemnity of the death of the King. Anna is seen in relief against that, always in blues, greens, mauve, until her final costume, which joins the palette of the court.” There are at least 275 costumes in the show, some made in New York City at various costume shops, including Euroco Costumes, Parsons Meares, and a shop at Lincoln Center; others in Connecticut by John Cowles; and still more in London at Angels The Costumiers. For Zuber, the biggest challenge was the time frame to accomplish everything.
Anna’s first costume is a travelling outfit. “The hoop is smaller than the others,” explains Zuber. “She is an attractive but practical woman. This ensemble is made from cotton organdy. Her second costume, her presentation at court, and her first encounter with the King, is formal. This is the second hoop, and it is larger. The fabrics are cotton/silk combinations. Her third outfit is in voile and cotton. It is a practical, working outfit, as we see Anna during her daily task of teaching in the schoolroom. The fourth costume is her evening gown. This is the largest hoop, and the dress reflects the contemporary fashion of the time. It is the first time we see her shoulders.”
The King’s costumes also progress throughout the production, as we see him in various moments of courtly life. “His first appearance is quite formal. He is in creams and golds, and his robe is quite decorative,” Zuber notes. “His second appearance is in purples. Bart wanted the King to appear serious and darker for his wonderful song, ‘Puzzlement.’ He then returns to whites and creams but with a very relaxed demeanor to him for his appearance in the schoolroom. We then move to deep reds for the end of Act One and his reconciliation with Anna after their disagreement in the schoolroom.” The King’s style is based on Zuber’s research of the King of Siam, who favored traditional dress but with a subtle recognition of Western fashion in some of the cuts of his jackets.
In collaborating with the scenic and lighting designers, Zuber recalls, “We were always looking at each other’s designs and collaborating on color and the sensibility of achieving a production that looked at The King And I in a new and respectful manner.”
The King And I is currently scheduled to run into January 2016 at Lincoln Center Theater.
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