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"Lost" Star Daniel Dae Kim and Maria Friedman to Head Royal Albert Hall King and I
By Mark Shenton
11 Dec 2008
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Maria Friedman
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| photo by Alistair Muir | Daniel Dae Kim (star of the hit U.S. series "Lost") and Maria Friedman (currently reprising her one-woman show Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged at the Trafalgar Studios) will play the title roles in a new, fully-staged arena production of The King and I, which will be performed in-the-round at the Royal Albert Hall.
Performances will begin June 12, 2009, for a run of 20 performances only to June 28.
The production will be directed by Jeremy Sams (The Sound of Music at the London Palladium and at Toronto's Princess Theatre), with musical direction by Gareth Valentine (original London production of Chicago and Strictly Gershwin at the Royal Albert Hall in summer 2008), sets and costumes by Robert Jones (also The Sound of Music, and the current RSC Hamlet), choreography by Susan Kikuchi (previously worked on nine international productions of The King and I as performer or choreographer) and lighting by Andrew Bridge (The Phantom of the Opera). It is produced by Raymond Gubbay and The Royal Albert Hall.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, based on Margaret Landon's book "Anna and the King of Siam," premiered at Broadway's St. James Theatre in 1951, where it ran for 1,246 performances, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical as well as Tonys for its stars Gertrude Lawrence (Best Actress in a Musical) and Yul Brynner (Best Featured Actor in a Musical). It subsequently came to London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1953, running for 926 performances. It has subsequently been seen in the West End at the London Palladium in 1979, with Yul Brynner and Virginia McKenna, and again at the London Palladium in 2000 in a reproduction of the 1996 Broadway revival, this time starring Elaine Paige and Jason Scott Lee.
Friedman, who is currently reprising her one-woman concert Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged in a season at the Trafalgar Studios, won Olivier Awards for her roles in Passion, Ragtime and the earlier version of her concert show, By Special Arrangement. Other leading roles include appearances in the West End in Chicago, Blues in the Night and The Woman in White (subsequently re-creating her performance at Broadway's Marquis Theatre), as well as Lady in the Dark and Sunday in the Park with George, both at the National Theatre. Neil Marcus will be presenting a season entitled Maria Friedman Celebrates the British Songbook at the Shaw Theatre Feb. 5-7, 2009.
Dae Kim (known to his fans as DDK) was born in South Korea and moved to the U.S. when he was two. He is best known for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on "Lost" and has also been seen in "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Angel," "24," "Star Trek: Voyager," "Star Trek: Enterprise," "Power Rangers," "Crusade," "Charmed," "The Shield," "Seinfeld," "NYPD Blue," "ER" and "The Andromeda Strain."
To book tickets, contact the box office at 020 7838 3100 or visit www.royalalberthall.com.
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