Alfred Drake, Zachary Scott, Herbert Lom, Farley Granger and Ricardo Montalban have all played the role, but for 34 years Yul Brynner has been the first and only King of Siam--an Oriental patriarch who is also a gigolo in jade. He is onstage perhaps half as much as the actress who plays Anna, the Englishwoman who educates the King's children; and of the half-dozen songs that still elate the memory (Hello, Young Lovers, Getting to Know You, I Whistle a Happy Tune, etc., etc., etc.), the King sings none. It matters not. By dint of dogged charisma, Brynner has identified himself...
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