Jose Llana made his parents a deal.
They would support his crazy dream of becoming a musical theater star for two years while he attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. If nothing happened, he'd go to graduate school to study engineering like his older sister.
To everyone's shock, he booked the 1996 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I as a freshman.
He made his Broadway debut as Lun Tha, the young lover punished by the King of Siam, and never looked back. After a two-decade theatrical career that includes Broadway's Rent, Flower Drum Song and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, he replaced Ken Watanabe in Broadway's 2015 Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center revival as the King.
He reprises the role on the national tour, presented by AT&T Performing Arts Center at Winspear Opera House Dec. 19-31.
Jose Llana and Laura Michelle Kelly as the King and Anna in The King and I, the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, presented by AT&T Performing Arts Center at Winspear Opera House Dec. 19-31, 2017.
"This is the show that made my dreams come true," Llana says on the phone from New York. "I was very young, very green and very excited. The most I expected was a nice pat on the head, a 'Nice job, young man and go back to school.' Luckily for me they were looking for a young man of Asian descent who had all of these qualities."
The King and I, which was a Tony Award-winning hit on its original Broadway outing in 1951, was adapted from the novel, Anna and the King of Siam, which was inspired by the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who taught the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s.
Q Lim as Tuptim in The King and I.
The double-tension comes from the King's wish for Anna to teach his children modern ways so that Siam can hold its own in a changing world, while holding fast to their traditions. Finding that tricky equilibrium is compounded by a wariness, then growing affection between the King and Anna that could send the already precarious balance between old and new ways tumbling.
Jose Llana and Lea Salonga in the 2002 Broadway revival of 'Flower Drum Song.' Llana and Salonga performed the roles for Dallas Summer Musicals in 2003.
Llana was born in Manila, Philippines and grew up in Springfield, Va., just outside Washington D.C. He started taking voice classes after falling in love with Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musicals. At first, The King and I wasn't one of his favorites, mainly because he didn't like the way non-Asians played the Asian roles.
But when he got his chance on Broadway in 1996, things had changed. Lou Diamond Phillips, who had been born in the Philippines, was cast as the first South Asian actor to play the King. Directors have grown increasingly sensitive to the importance of casting Asian actors in Asian roles.
When Dallas Summer Musicals cast a Caucasian actor, Paul Schoeffler, as the King in 2015, public outcry prompted the company to recast the role before opening. Alan Ariano took the part.
"I'm touring as an Asian American in an almost entirely Asian-American company," Llana says of the tour.
"It's changed my relationship with the show. I'm proud to be living in a country where there is so much Asian-American talent."
Bartlett Sher, center, directs cast members during a rehearsal of "Le Comte Ory," at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, March 18, 2011.
Bartlett Sher, who directed the Lincoln Center revival and the tour, earns frequent Tony Award nominations for the way he hones in on the modern relevance of classical musicals, including a Tony Award win for South Pacific in 2008. He's currently directing a revival of the 1956 classic My Fair Lady that's scheduled to begin previews in March at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York.
Like Llana, Sher has a long history with The King and I, dating back to playing one of the palace guards in a high school production. His journey has taken him from a place where he enjoyed the show for its lush, sweeping score to appreciating the incisiveness and continuing relevance of the show's commentary.
"There are moments where you're surprised by the sophistication of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the way they dealt with a culture that was facing the problem of colonialism next door," Sher says on the phone.
After researching the original script, Sher restored lines that many have assumed were added to reflect current political realities, including one where the king calls for the building of a wall around his country to keep invaders out.
Jose Llana as the King in The King and I, presented by AT&T Performing Arts Center at Winspear Opera House Dec. 19-31, 2017.
Llana, he says, is a standout as the king, which is a tough part to play because of how unlikable the character can seem on the surface.
"He's got 88 wives. He is extremely domineering and intense. He's facing enormous transition within his own culture and the world. Because of Jose's great acting skill, he is both domineering but immensely likable. You see real heart there. Jose has enormous political intellect and he's the best singer by far," Sher says.
"He can be very funny and handsome in the way that you want the king to be as he leads the journey. When he walks on stage, you believe him to be the King. He's in charge."
After all these years on Broadway and in a show he knows so well, Llana says he does feel in charge.
Lou Diamond Phillips starred in Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'The King and I' on Broadway and later at Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth June 7, 2006. .
"Even backstage I emulate my first king, Lou Diamond Phillips, in how to be a leader in the company — how to be a father figure that the youngest cast member can look up to."
For Llana, it was a draw that the tour included five weeks in the Kennedy Center in his home town of Washington, D.C. where his middle and high school friends flocked to see the show and his mother saw it at least 10 times, happy now that she has one engineer (Llana's sister) and one musical theater performer.
Llana feels the show offers an opportunity for a polarized country to see how people with different worldviews, such as Anna and the King, can care for and learn from each other.
"Whether you're liberal or conservative, we all love our children and we all deserve respect. Helping people find common ground has made the show a pleasure and an honor to perform this year."
Dec. 19-31 at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St., Dallas. $29-$140, subject to change. 214-880-0202. attpac.org.
CORRECTION, 3:47 p.m., Dec. 13: In an earlier version of this story, a photo provided by the AT&T Performing Arts Center showed Manna Nichols portraying one of the young lovers in The King and I. She has been replaced in the role by Q Lim. The photo has been substituted accordingly.