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Book and Lyrics
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Music
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Source Material
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This list represents writers who contributed to revisions, etc. following the original production.
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Screenplay
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Click on the title for info on the song.
Recordings listed here were done in the studio specifically to release as recordings. They do not represent cast recordings of a particular production.
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Book and Lyrics
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Music
|
|
...
Source Material
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This list represents writers who contributed to revisions, etc. following the original production.
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Screenplay
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Based on the novel Anna and the King of Siam, by Margaret Landon, with uncredited borrowings from the fim version's screenplay by Sally Benson and Talbot Jennings.
It's the 1860's and the Western world is closing in on Thailand. Hoping to give his family the necessary knowledge to survive in this New World, the King of Thailand hires for his children a British governess, Anna. At first, Anna and the King struggle to find common ground between Thai and British attitudes. Soon though, the two opposites fall in love. Meanwhile, Tuptim and and Lun Tha have a hidden romance even though Tup Tim belongs to the King.
In 1950, Gertrude Lawrence's attorney and business manager, Fanny Holtzmann, was worried that Lawrence's star was fading. When she received a copy of Margaret Landon's 1944 book Anna and the King of Siam, she thought that it would make a good vehicle. Lawrence purchased the rights to adapt the book as a play. Holtzmann approached Cole Porter to write the score but he wasn't interested. She was going to approach Lawrence's longtime friend Nöel Coward, but she met Dorothy Hammerstein (Oscar's wife) by chance. She pressed Dorothy to have her husband read the book if she sent it over. Holtzmann also talked to Dorothy Rodgers (Richard's wife).
Coincidentally both wives had read the book when it first came out and had suggested that their husbands musicalize it. However, the two writers weren't interested because the book is episodic and lacks a story. When they saw the 1946 film adaptation (which starred Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison), they were interested.
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