The Lincoln Center Theater's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I is at the London Palladium until Saturday 29 September 2018.
It gives West End audiences the chance to see the Broadway stars reprise their original roles on the London stage, led by Kelli O'Hara as Anna) and Ken Watanabe as the King).
Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical is built around the up and down relationship between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher recruited to teach his many wives and children.
(Images Matthew Murphy)
Long to reign over us - happy and glorious?
What goes around comes around, they say, and this is certainly the case with stage musicals.
There is a veritable Carousel of works from the so called 'golden age of musicals' that enjoy perennial revivals.
Quite a number of these are musical theatre works that have also been adapted for musical films, such as My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, West Side Story and Oliver!
Chicago is another musical cum film adaptation that is receiving much deserved acclaim on London's West End Stage.
As to is Rodgers and Hammerstein's King and I which is, in fact, based on Anna and the King of Siam, a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon that became a 1948 film with Rex Harrison as the King.
The stage musical, as The King and I, received its premier on Broadway in 1951 followed by the celebrated film version of the musical starring a young Yul Brynner.
The current production of The King and I is another, highly successful, revival and the third production of the musical to run at the Palladium.
Yul Brynner reprised his film role for a run at the theatre in 1979 and it returned in 2000, with Elaine Paige as Anna and Jason Scott Lee as the King.
For this hat trick production the musical is playing packed and ecstatic Palladium audiences - even on the Monday night I attended.
And it's easy to see why. For this is a very easy and undemanding musical to enjoy - at least on the face of it.
The plot sees an enlightened, English, Anna sparing with her royal Siamese employer and, in most cases winning, as she helps the King come to terms with his country's future in a quickly changing world.
This and the clash of western and Asian cultures provides the pair, and others in the large cast, with a vehicle for much of the musical's humour
Of the King's 77 children, the eight that we see are delightfully cute (as well as highly talented).
The score, performed by full orchestra, is also very easy on the ear with Whistle a Happy Tune, Getting to Know You and Shall We Dance withstanding the passages of time.
The King and I ends (as I guess is well known) with the old king dying and his son, having been influenced by Anna's teaching, taking over the throne with a determination to herald in an enlightened era for Siam.
The new King's first proclamation is to decree that his Siamese subjects now bow to him only down to waist level, rather than with faces touching the floor.
Whether you will enjoy The King and I will, I suspect, depend, on your attitude towards the revival of musicals first staged in a bygone era, and for which the theatrical parameters are in place.
This is not a Shakespeare play that can be interpreted and reinvented to suit prevailing times.
Moreover there are a number of underlying issues with this musical when performed today.
The King is portrayed by Rodgers and Hammerstein as full of bluff, bluster and some fun who is, ultimately, no match for the guile of a strong and 'enlightened' woman.
Very commendable.
But delve a little deeper below its sheen and one soon realises that here is a tyrannical dictator who demands total subservience and blind obedience from his subjects.
The King deems it perfectly reasonable to corral any number of wives and concubines, with whom he happily fathers offspring by the dozens.
The King then readily accepts a young princess from a neighbouring kingdom as a peace offering and, having done so, is quite prepared to give her a public flogging when she professes her love for another.
My approach was to take The King and I as a period piece and, as such, it was a thoroughly rewarding experience.
A lavish and greatly entertaining revival of a musical first performed over 60 years ago.
It was after leaving the Palladium discussion about the underlying issues took place.
My guess is that Kim Jong-Un, the Musical, would not enjoy a ride on the carousel.
The London Palladium
Mention in this review must also go to the theatre itself.
A Grade II listed building, the London Palladium is one of the UK's most well known and well loved theatres.
Built in 1910, the Palladium has seen the world's finest entertainers perform its stage over the decades and some of the biggest musicals.
The theatre has also hosted the Royal Variety Performance a record 41 times and achieved fame with TV audiences by hosting Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Bruce Forsythe.