www.nj.com Thanks to Lisa for this information! From the Star-Ledger http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1018257004306590.xml Mrs. Anna saves Paper Mill's 'King' Monday, April 08, 2002 BY PETER FILICHIA Star-Ledger Staff Terrible "King." Wonderful "I." Luckily for Paper Mill Playhouse theatergoers, when Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote "The King and I," they gave British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens much more time on stage than the Siamese monarch. Carolee Carmello is incandescent in the role, in a performance that must be seen. Carmello gives Anna the authority and finesse of a diplomat, which the character certainly needs. A "mere" woman in the 19th century had to tread lightly when advising a foreign potentate who wanted her help but was too proud to ask for it. We could use someone like Carmello in Washington. And yet, every now and then, when the King gets the better of her through wordplay or logic, Carmello shows the right level of amusement -- when he does it fairly, that is. During the times she is instructing her students, she has the sense of wonder that all good teachers have. But when a moment arrives where she could let down her hair and have fun with them, she can do that, too. Her voice exudes charm in "Getting to Know You," and surges with power at the end of "Hello, Young Lovers." Even in "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" where she fantasizes what she would like to say to her oppressor, she sings it melliflously, instead of sing-speaking it as most Annas have done. Carmello has forged a nice mother-and-son relationship with Gerard Canonico, and they are charming in "I Whistle a Happy Tune." He is an astonishingly good child actor, who already knows that acting means being real and not overdoing it the way most child actors do. Or the way Kevin Gray does as he woefully portrays the King. Granted, this is one of the toughest roles in the musical theater canon, for the bald-pated Yul Brynner put a seemingly indelible stamp on it back in 1951. But as Lou Diamond Phillips proved six years ago in a Tony-winning revival, the assignment isn't insurmountable. Gray's haircut -- with the sides and back shaved clean and the crown sporting a dark dollop -- provide an apt metaphor, for sometimes he imitates Brynner and sometimes he goes his own way. While simply photocopying a previous performance is usually a bad choice, Gray would have, on balance, been better off to channel Brynner, for what he does to the King of Siam is, sad to say, a musical theater crime. He so extraordinarily effete that he may remind older theatergoers of Billy DeWolfe, that supercilious fancypants of '40s films. He portrays the autocrat in a terribly immature way, as an overly petulant boy instead of as a man, with thin, reedy diction that is reminiscent of an adolescent whose voice hasn't yet changed. Indeed, when the King's teenage son Chulalongkorn (staunchly played by Erik Lin-Greenberg) makes his entrance, the boy walks with such authority and masculinity that he already seems much more of a man than his father. On hand, though, is a worthy Lun Tha, the slave who dares to love Tuptim, the King's newest concubine. Paolo Montalban is so moving that one wishes he had more than a few scenes. Had he been around in 1951, Rodgers and Hammerstein might have been so impressed with his renditions of "We Kiss in a Shadow" and "I Have Dreamed" that they may well have written additional songs for him. Margaret Ann Gates' Tuptim has a lovely voice, but she seems too old and wise to play the character who is described as a "young girl" and "only a child." Another impressive voice belongs to Sandia Ang as Lady Thiang, but she is more intent on delivering "Something Wonderful" than performing it. Here is where she must show Anna how much she loves the King, but she only manages to get the audience to say, "Doesn't she sing well?" As Anna says, "I'll not forget the children," for they all do beautifully. The 17 at Friday's opening (out of the 40 that rotate roles at different performances) each created a personality and got the audience to fall in love with them in the always moving "March of the Siamese Children." Both Michael Anania's sets and Roger Kirk's costumes are tasteful and comely. Susan Kikuchi's choreography may only mirror the original provided by Jerome Robbins, but Mayumi Saito and the ensemble shine during one of musical theater's most impressive ballets, "The Small House of Uncle Thomas." Mark S. Hoebee has staged the show to move as quickly as a Siamese cat chasing a Burmese mouse. Too bad, though, that Hoebee couldn't rope in Gray, so that the musical didn't become "The Page Boy and I." Copyright 2002 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.