UPDATE: Ken Watanabe Asks Fans for 'Understanding' in KING & I Postponement

UPDATE: 2:30 pm/ET: Craig Bankey, press agent for actor Ken Watanabe, confirmed that the actor has undergone endoscopic surgery and is recuperating at a hospital in Japan. Watanabe released a statement through his publicist, saying: "I am preparing myself in earnest for the stage. I would like to ask for your understanding that the start of my performance in New York will be a little delayed."

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As BWW recently reported, Lincoln Center Theater announced in January that for seven weeks only, Tony Award nominee Ken Watanabe, who created the role of the King of Siam in the LCT production, would return to once again star opposite Tony Award-winner Kelli O'Hara as Anna Leonowens. The actor was to begin performances on Tuesday, March 1 and appear through Sunday April 17th.

Today it was revealed on Twitter that his Broadway return will be postponed by several weeks due to recent laparoscopic surgery for stomach cancer:

BWW sends our best wishes to the actor for a speedy recovery.

Ken Wanatabe made his American stage debut in The King and I, garnering a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance. His Japanese theatre credits include Dialogue with Horowitz, Hamlet, Shitayamannen-cho monogatari, The Lion in Winter, and The Royal Hunt of the Sun.For his work in film, Watanabe received Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for The Last Samurai. His motion picture credits also include Inception, Letters from Iwo Jima, Memoirs of a Geisha, Batman Begins, Godzilla, and Sea of Trees.

Winner of four 2015 Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, Lincoln Center Theater's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I boasts a cast of 51 starring Kelli O'Hara (Tony Award winner - Best Actress in a Musical) as Anna Leonowens and featuring Ruthie Ann Miles (Tony Award winner - Best Featured Actress in a Musical) as Lady Thiang, Ashley Park (as Tuptim), Conrad Ricamora (as Lun Tha), Edward Baker-Duly (as Sir Edward Ramsey), Jon Viktor Corpuz (as Prince Chulalongkorn), Paul Nakauchi (as Kralahome), Marc Oka (as Phra Alack), Rocco Sisto (as Captain Orton), and Nicky Torchia (as Louis).

The production features choreography by Christopher Gattelli, based on the original choreography by Jerome Robbins, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber (2015 Tony Award), lights by Donald Holder, sound by Scott Lehrer, and musical direction by Ted Sperling. Andrew Resnick conductsTHE KING AND I's 29-piece orchestra performing the musical's original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and its dance and incidental music by Trude Rittman.