Kate Baldwin and Paolo Montalban will get to know each other as Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam in Lyric Opera of Chicago's upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I.
Baldwin, a Tony nominee for Finian's Rainbow, was last seen in Chicago in the pre-Broadway tryout of Big Fish in 2013; she's an alumna of Northwestern University. Montalban, who's been seen on Broadway in Pacific Overtures and The King and I, is probably still best known for playing the Prince to Brandy's Cinderella in the 1997 TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, with Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother. He's previously played the King of Siam in multiple regional productions.
Lyric's production of The King and I, to be helmed by British director Lee Blakely and based on his 2014 staging at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet, is the fourth in its series of five grand-scale productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals, following The Sound of Music, Oklahoma! and Carousel. South Pacific is planned for 2017. The King and I will run April 29–May 22.