Kelli O’Haa and Ken Watanabe are set to star in the Broadway play, The King and I.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show is a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 musical by the same name. This marks Watanabe’s first debut on the stage in America. He has performed on the stage in his native Japan.
The show is scheduled to open on April 16.
Inspired by the writings of Anna Leonowens, The King and I is about a British schoolteacher who has a troubled relationship with the monarch, whose wives and children she has been hired to tutor.
The original play won five Tonys and has had three other revivals on Broadway.
Kelli O’Hara is an accomplished theater actress, playing shows such as The Light in the Piazza and The Bridges of Madison County.
Watanabe is an actor who was in The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Godzilla.
Bartlett Sher, who worked with O’Hara on other stage projects, will helm the production, Variety reported. On March 12, the previews for the revival are set to begin.
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