In the Broadway musical The King and I, Anna travels to Siam to teach the royal children.
Anna Leonowens arrives in Bangkok after being hired by the King of Siam. She teaches English and Western subjects to the king’s many children and wives while negotiating the strict customs of the royal court. Her relationship with the king forms the emotional center of the musical.
The show is based loosely on Leonowens’s memoirs and on Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam. Richard Rodgers wrote the music and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the book and lyrics. The original Broadway production opened in 1951, with Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and Yul Brynner as the King.
“Siam” was the historical name used for Thailand before the country officially adopted the name Thailand in 1939, apart from a brief restoration during World War II. The musical’s setting is therefore historical rather than contemporary.