If ever there was a show which personified musical theatre it would undoubtedly be THE KING AND I. The multi award-winning Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical returns to Cardiff next week at the New Theatre, following its critically-acclaimed sold out season at The London Palladium.

I think it’s fair to claim the show as the greatest musical from the golden age of musicals – with one of the finest scores ever written including; Whistle a Happy Tune, Getting to Know You, and Shall We Dance, and featuring a company of 50 world-class performers and a full-scale orchestra. This is a huge production.

HELEN GEORGE, best known as Trixie in the hit BBC One series Call The Midwife, stars as Anna Leonowens. This gloriously lavish production is brought to the stage by an internationally renowned creative team under Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher (South Pacific / My Fair Lady / To Kill a Mockingbird).

Playing the King of Siam is a performer with a huge heritage of TV, stage and dance behind him. DARREN LEE has quite a resume having started his career as an 11 year old appearing on the first ever Junior Star Search in America. From there, his feet have barely touched the ground.

Shortly after Star Search he became a series regular on Kid’s Incorporated, a Disney Channel Favourite. Before relocating to New York to pursue a career in theatre. Darren danced with Paula Abdul and Elton John for Diet Coke and appeared on the Annual Academy Awards. He was also in the Academy Award-winning film, Chicago as a dancer. And as a Broadway performer, has been in 11 Broadway shows mostly as a dancer.

Seems to me we have a lot to chat to Darren about before The King and I rolls into Cardiff next week, which is precisely what we did.

We caught up with him, in between performances at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend. We had a chat about the early days as a child performer, and talked a lot about this tour and the joy of working alongside Helen George. But when a role like the King comes along you simply have to grab it with both hands, which is exactly what Darren did.

Also in the cast are Cezarah Bonner as Lady Thiang, Sam Jenkins-Shaw as Captain Orton & Sir Edward Ramsay, Dean John-Wilson as Lun Tha, Caleb Lagayan as Prince Chulalongkorn, Kok-Hwa Lie as Kralahome and Marienella Phillips as Tuptim.

Completing the adult cast are Chi Chan, Jeffrey Chekai, Emily Grace-ling, Cher Nicolette Ho, Daniel Len, Rachel Wang-Hei Lau, Candy Ma, Rachel Macdougall, Yuki Ozeki, Amelia Kinu Muus, Kitt Pakapom, Prem Rai, Ria Tanaka, Hiromi Toyooka, Jasmine Triadi, Jensen Tudtud, Qinwen Xue and Jason Yang-Westland.

Sharing the child role of Louis Leonowens will be Harry Altoft, Dexter Barry, Max Ivemey and Charlie Mcguire.

We told you it was a huge company of players.

Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children.

Acclaimed Tony Award-winning Bartlett Sher directs the production with a creative team including set designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber, lighting designer Donald Holder, sound designer Scott Lehrer, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, dance and incidental music arranged By Trude Rittmann, musical supervisor Stephen Ridley, casting director Serena Hill, children’s casting director Debbie O’Brien and musical director Christopher Mundy.

THE KING AND I really is one of those must-see productions, and with a staging on this scale a visit to the New Theatre in Cardiff should be on your radar next week. The show opens on Tuesday 25th through to Saturday 29th April (which we believe is Helen’s last performance). It’s on stage at 7:30pm each evening with a 2:30pm matinee on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Tickets range from £28 to £52 with a variety of prices and concessions in between. I can tell you that some of the performances are selling really quickly. You can find out more, and get your tickets HERE.