Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 7 Oklahoma! A Musical for Its Times
- 8 State Fair and Us
- 9 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Carousel?
- 10 Allegro: A Musical Tale of a Medical Everyman
- 11 Minor Feelings about South Pacific
- 12 The King and I: Beyond Performing Geopolitics
- 13 Me and Juliet: Innovative Metatheatrical Musical Comedy
- 14 Pipe Dream: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zeitoper?
- 15 Cinderella on Television: The Transformational Power of Adaptive Dramaturgy
- 16 The Bridges of Flower Drum Song
- 17 ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’: Places, Mobilities and Identities in The Sound of Music
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
12 - The King and I: Beyond Performing Geopolitics
from Part III - The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2026
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Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 7 Oklahoma! A Musical for Its Times
- 8 State Fair and Us
- 9 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Carousel?
- 10 Allegro: A Musical Tale of a Medical Everyman
- 11 Minor Feelings about South Pacific
- 12 The King and I: Beyond Performing Geopolitics
- 13 Me and Juliet: Innovative Metatheatrical Musical Comedy
- 14 Pipe Dream: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zeitoper?
- 15 Cinderella on Television: The Transformational Power of Adaptive Dramaturgy
- 16 The Bridges of Flower Drum Song
- 17 ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’: Places, Mobilities and Identities in The Sound of Music
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The King and I (1951) undoubtedly provokes controversy and debate. Its imperialist and racist resonances stem from its source materials, Margaret Landon’s Anna and the King of Siam (1944) and Anna Leonowens’s own writings, and were transferred to the musical itself. But just as Anna in the musical wants to conquer the attitudes of the historical King Mongkut, so do Rodgers and Hammerstein want to conquer the fundamental racial and geopolitical challenges of the story. They do this through their musical numbers, their ‘delivery system’, through which they bring forth the audience’s most profound emotional responses that centre on love. The ballet ‘The Small House of Uncle Thomas’, Tuptim’s re-envisioning of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin receives particular attention for its rhetoric about slavery and freedom as well as Jerome Robbins’s choreography. The chapter also explores the 2018 musical Soft Power (book and lyrics by David Henry Hwang, music by Jeanine Tesori) as a ‘reverse’ The King and I.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein , pp. 186 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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