Within the Broadway universe, the Tony-nominated revival of "The King and I" at Lincoln Center stands alone as the only mainstream musical with a largely Asian cast singing and dancing in bare feet.
Consequently, a sign greeting the performers and crew at the center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater reads, "Please remove shoes before entering the rehearsal room."
For five actors with island ties — one working behind the scenes for this Rodgers and Hammerstein reboot, the others putting their best foot forward onstage — the advisory merely reflects established local-style etiquette.
"Not a problem," said Greg Zane, the production’s associate choreographer, who performed barefoot in the show’s 1996 Broadway reincarnation and directed Diamond Head Theatre’s last mounting of the timeless favorite in 2011.
This time, Zane joined choreographer Christopher Gattelli to re-create the original Jerome Robbins choreography. The show, starring Japanese actor Ken Watanabe as the King of Siam and Broadway belle Kelli O’Hara as the British schoolteacher Anna, opened April 16 to rave reviews, resulting in nine Tony Awards nominations last week, including best musical revival and nods for both leads.
The show is grandly opulent, tuneful and majestic yet personal and relevant. It is Lincoln Center’s second Rogers and Hammerstein blockbuster following the 2008 revival of "South Pacific," both directed by Bartlett Sher.
Former Kaimuki resident Ruthie Ann Miles, who plays head wife Lady Thiang, landed her first nomination, for featured actress in a musical in the role. Miles is widely remembered for playing Imelda Marcos — wearing lots of shoes — the past two years in Alex Timber’s innovative off-Broadway musical "Here Lies Love" about the former Philippines first lady. She said she recalls the media hoopla surrounding the real Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos seeking asylum in Hawaii when she was a youngster.
"The drama, the customs stuff, the jewels, the shoes," she said.
Hawaii’s Cole Horibe, who last year portrayed Bruce Lee — in bare feet — in "Kung Fu," an off-Broadway drama with music about the beloved martial artist, has a featured dancing role, playing an angel in a significant dream sequence that is normally acted by a woman. Zane was instrumental in linking Horibe with the production; he didn’t audition, but was summoned and landed the role.
Paul Nakauchi, who is mainland-based with family in Hawaii, performed the role of the King of Siam in an earlier DHT production and with Zane performed in the 1996 show of "The King and I" on Broadway. This time he is portraying the Kralahome, adviser to the king.
Autumn Ogawa, who grew up in a variety of stage roles in Hawaii, including the lead in "Annie" as a child and a job at Disney’s Aulani resort as an adult, is making her Broadway debut, ending a series of tryout rejections in the Big Apple. Though an ensemble trouper she also covers for the Lady Thiang role.
Zane said he wanted to get as many Hawaii actors into roles as possible. "I can bring my experiences onstage and share that with new performers," he said.
Director Sher earned a Tony for directing "South Pacific," and he’s got Hawaii ties, too. His adoptive father is a local Chinese-Hawaiian who married his Caucasian mother, so he’s made periodic visits and knows a lot about Hawaii’s shoeless lifestyle.
Zane’s first big New York audition years ago was for the Mephistopheles role in "Cats."
"I went to an open call and made it to the final three, but I didn’t get it. Yet it was a good experience. My mentor, the late Tommy Aguilar, believed in me and always told me, ‘Don’t worry, you can make it.’ In auditions you have no control over what people think. You may be too short or too tall, or they don’t like the color of your hair. But you can’t give up.
"And Tommy used to say, you cannot just keep it to yourself, you have to share. Pay it forward. Maybe it’s a Hawaii thing, too, helping others."
Horibe first gained exposure as a runner-up on TV’s "So You Think You Can Dance." He didn’t think "The King and I" had a suitable part for him, so he skipped the tryouts until contacted by Zane.
"Agewise, most of the male parts were for older men, and I’ve been trying to get parts away from dancing," he said. "And I really wanted to act."
But as the angel, he welcomes the change of pace — calming — compared with "Kung Fu," where he was virtually onstage all the time, with exhaustive fight and dance choreography. His most compelling memory of that short-lived experience: "When I caught the subway, there were posters everywhere — it was me — and stories in the newspapers and magazines. The incredible exposure was surreal."
"Kung Fu" may not be out of his system yet, however, since the producers of that show and its scriptwriter, David Hwang, are contemplating a revival in the months ahead in Chicago or Los Angeles for an eventual, reworked Broadway reboot.
For singer-actress Miles, the gig as Lady Thiang means daily commutes to midtown Broadway from the Brooklyn home she shares with her husband from South Carolina — they got married in Hawaii and her married name is Blumenstein — and new daughter.
Like her cast mates, Miles is ecstatic about "The King and I."
"It’s a show that was on my short bucket list, along with (working with) Bartlett Sher," she said. "When I was picked to do Lady Thiang, I nearly collapsed. It’s a dream fulfilled."
Her signature tune, a stirring "Something Wonderful," is a sure showstopper.
The Imelda musical, while grueling with disco music and rotating sets accompanied by roving audiences, "was unlike anything I’ve ever done, unlike anything anyone had ever seen, yet it was easier to do because I played a role that I created," Miles said.
Her mother wanted her to attend Mid-Pacific Institute, but she wound up at Washington Middle School, then Kaimuki High. She was in a marching and symphonic band, which helped her get a role in the innovative 2006 touring edition of "Sweeney Todd," which required the actors to double as musicians. (She played Adolfo Pirelli, tackling accordion, flute and piano while acting.)
Ogawa’s mission was to finally land her first Broadway role, so she upped her auditions.
"I felt if I was auditioning nearly every day for a year, people will start to get to know me. I was the ‘new Asian girl’ because I was able and willing," she said. "Besides, I can dance barefoot throughout the show."
Now that the show is in its open-ended run, she hopes to take or teach dance workshops to fill her time and pocketbook when not onstage.
Nakauchi is no stranger to "The King and I." He performed in the 1996 version with Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy and in a 2001 London production with Elaine Paige, replacing Hawaii’s Jason Scott Lee as the King of Siam.
"For Asian performers, this is one show that brings us together," he said.
In recent times his voice has become more famous than his name: He’s voiced such video games as "Diablo III: Reaper of Souls," "Call of Duty: World at War," "Tomb Raider: Legend" and "Lost Planet 2."
Prior to the current production, Nakauchi worked with Lea Salonga and George Takei in "Allegiance," a play about the Japanese-American internment experience that is Broadway-bound this fall.
All the locals have pangs of homesickness, being a continent and ocean away from shave ice and saimin, but Miles summarized the common yearnings.
"What don’t I miss about Hawaii?" she sighed. "When my friends come to visit, they bring me pua kenikeni lei, arare, my special kind of li hing I can’t get here. I miss the smell of home and the spirit of Hawaii — and its different heart.
"Took me five years to get used to the multiple seasons — not like Hawaii’s sun and rain. It may sound cheesy, but there’s nothing like the aloha spirit of Hawaii on this earth."
Add going barefoot, too.
For tickets to “The King and I” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, visit lct.org or KingandIBroadway.
com, or call 212-239-6200.
