The King and I review: Helen George is revelatory in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical

Those who only know Helen George from Call the Midwife on TV will be stunned by her turn in The King and I. Swapping baby-deliverer Trixie Franklin’s 1960s blonde bob and fashionable attire for schoolteacher Anna Leonowens’ 1860s smart coiffure and flowing frocks, she’s been transformed into a very different woman from a very different era.

And not just visually. Hers is a revelatory performance by someone who started out wanting to do musical theatre but got diverted along the way. And she’s so good in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical that producers should be lining up to lure her back to the stage once the six-week London run is done.

We already know that Helen is really good at playing no-nonsense characters, and we know, from Strictly‘s 13th series, that she can dance. It’s the singing voice that comes as a wonderful surprise. It’s light and operatic, delicately caressing the likes of ‘Hello, Young Lovers’ with ease – and she doesn’t over-sing for applause.

“Anna enters on a huge boat that draws gasps as it sails across the stage”

Her Anna enters on a huge boat that draws gasps as it sails across the stage in a show that’s as lavishly staged as you’d expect from a production that started out at the Lincoln Centre in New York under the direction of Bartlett Sher. Everything about it is big, from the cast to the sets to the costumes, with a skirt so massively hooped it probably gets its own dressing room.

The skirt belongs to English tutor Anna, who arrives in Siam with her young son to teach Western ways to the King’s numerous children sired by many wives. On the surface it could read as an argument for Western imperialism, with Anna bringing knowledge of the wider world and Siam’s somewhat small place in it to King and his clan. As she whistles a happy tune or two, she also challenges long-held traditions, like the ruler’s bizarre insistence that no-one’s head should ever be higher than his and that women should love who they’re instructed to, not who they truly desire.

But written by Hammerstein and scored by Rodgers in the 1950s, this true story is more complicated than that. It questions values on both sides of the tradition vs progress debate. Whenever it’s revived now you will hear critics complaining about its problematic narrative but, under Sher’s thoughtful direction, Siam’s customs – like the delightful ‘March Of The Siamese Children’ and the narrated ballet ‘The Small House Of Uncle Thomas’ – are treated with reverence.

“It’s impossible not to be swept away by the sheer spectacle”

And, as played by Darren Lee, the King here is a troubled leader, not a despicable despot. Lee is captivating as he peels back the King’s initially steely demeanour, his puzzlement at Anna’s attitudes slowly turning to a sort of mutual love that is all the more poignant for going unconsummated.

The earlier scenes are somewhat sluggish in their pacing and thus the first act drags a bit in places. But by the time Anna and the King swoop across to the stage to the tune of ‘Shall We Dance?’ it’s impossible not to be swept away by the sheer spectacle.

The King and I is at the Dominion Theatre, London, until 2 March. Get tickets here