On the heels of the national tour of Lincoln Center's Tony Award-winning Broadway revival sweeping the country now, educators and students will be whistling a happy tune when R&H Theatricals, a division of Rodgers & Hammerstein, an Imagem Company, releases Getting To Know... The King and I; it was announced today by Rodgers & Hammerstein president Ted Chapin and iTheatrics founder and CEO Timothy Allen McDonald.
The Getting To Know Collection titles are 60-minute educational versions uniquely adapted for performance by young people. Applications are being accepted now at
www.rnh.com/collection/10/Getting-To-Know, a free perusal is available
here.
"
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II brought out something absolutely extraordinary in each other. The King and I is masterful and breathtaking all at once; it draws on dance, dialogue, song, and drama to explore universal themes that are as top-of-mind today as when Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote them," says
Ted Chapin, president of
Rodgers & Hammerstein. "We chose to name our student collection of musicals after The King and I song 'Getting to Know You' as it represents the spirit of what happens when people of all ages put on a show. This is a story about people of different cultures with different beliefs and values, coming together to find common ground. We see young people as exciting new partners in it; we are looking forward to discovering how they stage their interpretations, and we think their experiences will have a positive role in shaping them as individuals," he adds.
"One of my favorite lines in The King and I is 'It's a very ancient saying, but a true and honest thought, that 'if you become a teacher by your pupils you'll be taught,'" adds iTheatrics'
Timothy Allen McDonald. "That value perfectly describes the joy of putting on a musical with young people."
Getting To Know... The King and I is adapted from the award-winning musical The King and I, featuring a score by
Richard Rodgers and a book by
Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by
Margaret Landon, published in 1944, which was inspired by the memoirs of
Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s. The 1951 Broadway production won a Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as Tony awards for its stars
Yul Brynner and
Gertrude Lawrence.
Yul Brynner and
Deborah Kerr starred in 1956 film, and Brynner won an Academy Award for his performance.
Subsequent Broadway revivals of the show in 1996 and 2015 won Tony awards for Best Revival. Earlier this year, the 60th anniversary of the Brynner and Lawrence film was celebrated with a nationwide release. Now, the 2015 Broadway revival of Lincoln Center's The King and I tours across North America.
The King and I takes place in 1862 in Siam as an English widow,
Anna Leonowens and her young son arrive at the Royal Palace in Bangkok. Anna has been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West, and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and eventually, respect one another, in a truly unique love story.
The hour-long musical was adapted for student performance by iTheatrics, the world's leading authority on musical theater for young people, under the supervision of McDonald. iTheatrics is a New York City-based company which works with leading public and private companies around the world - including the White House, the Kennedy Center, NBC Universal and all the leading theatrical licensors - to make sure that young people everywhere have access to quality musical theater programs.
The music in the Getting To Know Collection has been transposed into keys appropriate for young voices and each title comes with accompanying show-specific resources which make sure that educators of all levels may produce an engaging and successful theater production with students.
These resources include: vocal and accompaniment tracks (no accompanist needed), a guide to Staging and Choreography DVD featuring numbers from the show fully presented by iTheatrics' resident choreographer
Steven G. Kennedy in collaboration with a student cast, a fully annotated production guide detailing the process of producing this show with young people on every budget and experience level, a music cue sheet, a props and costumes list, and a scene-by-scene set breakdown.
All licensees will have immediate access to an instant digital download rehearsal ready pack, which includes audition-ready materials, the production guide and vocal tracks so that directors may get started on their productions prior to receiving their physical Production Pack.
Founded in 2006 by educator and author
Timothy Allen McDonald, and headquartered in New York City, iTheatrics is the world's leading authority on musical theater for young people.
iTheatrics develops collections of musicals for leading musical theater licensing agencies including the Getting To Know Collection (
R&H Theatricals), the Young Performers' Edition of musicals (Tams-Witmark Music Library), and the Broadway Junior Collection and School Edition musicals (
Music Theatre International and Disney Theatrical Group). Working with esteemed partners such as the President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, New York City's Department of Education, the Kennedy Center, McGraw-Hill Education and NBC Universal, iTheatrics develops and implements dynamic programs to build cost-effective and sustainable musical theater programs in underserved schools. iTheatrics produces the annual iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival, the world's largest festival exclusively dedicated to celebrating young people and student-driven musical theater. Find out how you can make the world a better place - one musical at a time - at
iTheatrics.com.
Rodgers & Hammerstein is the organization founded in 1944 by the legendary team of
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II to protect and license their theatrical works. R&H own the rights to the world's most popular stage and film musicals, including Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I,
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and The Sound of Music. With offices in New York City and London, the theatrical licensing division,
R&H Theatricals, represents the stage performance rights to over 150 musicals by more than 200 writers. Collectively these include works by
Rodgers & Hammerstein,
Rodgers & Hart (Babes in Arms, Pal Joey), Kern & Hammerstein (Show Boat),
Kurt Weill (The Threepenny Opera, One Touch of Venus),
Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, The Light in the Piazza), as well as the incomparable,
Irving Berlin (Annie Get Your Gun, White Christmas).
R&H Theatricals is home to works from Broadway (Sophisticated Ladies,
Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party,
Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights, [title of show] and First Date), Off-Broadway (Carrie the musical, Ordinary Days, Altar Boyz, Giant, 21 Chump Street), perennials such as Once Upon a Mattress, Big River and Footloose, a Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) collection which includes Garfield The Musical with Cattitude and Mad Libs Live!, and the longest-running revues in the history of Broadway - Smokey Joe's Cafe - and Off-Broadway - I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Rodgers & Hammerstein is an Imagem company:
www.rnh.com.
