Blessed Sacrament 'The King and I' Closes on Sunday

Photos Bob Tansley and Kerri Morris

This is the most beautiful show I have EVER been involved in anywhere. I watch the kids and the spectacle of it all and start to cry. - Bob Tansley, director

Waterbury, CT - Students in grades pre-k through 8 from 25 schools in 20 towns have come together to present a truly beautiful production of the quite adult Rogers and Hammerstein musical ‘The King and I’ with Blessed Sacrament Children’s Theatre. The driving force behind the program is Bob Tansley, who came out of retirement to direct this year’s production and is marking his 26th year of directing this age group.

This year Mr. T had the wonderful help of some dedicated local talent. Patrick Hearn returned to serve as co-director and work the spotlight and Ben Orlando came back to provide the choreography. Lucia Dressel graciously served as vocal coach and blocked the musical numbers and her husband John Dressel came on board to be the musical director and conductor of the pit orchestra. With just seven other musicians, the sound of this glorious score was most impressive.

Father McCarthy is the Blessed Sacrament pastor who supported the continuation of this long-time program. John O’Donnell is the long-time producer with Melissa Kundel as the production manager. Shout outs to the stage manager CJ McNellis and his assistants Galvin Brayton and Travis Karas on a job well done. Terri Thompson designed the truly magnificent set that brought us into the palace built by some dedicated dads and painted by another team of angels. Ann Calabro is credited as lead costumer; she and her team did an amazing job with the lush look of this production. Anna had more than one hoop skirt dress and the king’s silk robes were truly royal. All the wives and children were dressed in different but complementary royal ensemble with plenty of Siamese crowns.

The Saturday matinee was performed by the members of the Teacher Cast. This time Matthew Keating led the cast as the King of Siam; this young actor shaved his head completely and it helped him to command the stage and his kingdom. Kennedy Morris, one of the Belle’s from last year’s ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ was spectacular as Mrs. Anna, as I knew that she would be. The graceful Maura Kahuda stepped out of the chorus of last year and nailed the role of Lady Thiang, the king’s head wife, with a maturity to her singing and acting beyond her years. Her solo of “Something Wonderful” was just that.

Grace Altenburger brought her strong acting and wonderful singing voice to the role of the slave Tuptim. Benjamin Dressel also sang extremely well in the role of her beloved Lun Tha. It was a treat to hear these two sing “I Have Dreamed” together. R.J. Damato played The Kralahome and Jake Liquindoli shared the role of the interpreter with Joseph Breton. Addison Brayton had the speaking role of Princess Ying. Luke Audie got to steer the ship as the captain and Kalman Zold shared the role of Anna’s son Louis with Michael Meier and Grace’s sister Logan Altenburger. Nicholas Bates played crown prince Chulalongkorn at this matinee and Claire Roberts shared the role with him. Sam Champagne was the very English Sir Edward Ramsey. The royal toddlers in the Teacher Cast included Logan Tansley and Brennan Kunkel. The chorus included many young ladies as the king’s wives and many younger children as just some of the children of the king in fabulous costumes.

There was more than one time where the youngest cast members paraded around the audience so that parents got a close up view of their young performers. It was touching to see the older kids shepherd their younger cast members around the rows of seats. Young Kamden Sevilla, who just turned three, joined his brothers Kai and Kaleb onstage as a member of the Children of the King chorus and took the role very seriously. All three young actors are the sons of Theo Sevilla, who shared the role of Belle's father Maurice with Mr. Tansley in last year's 'Beauty and the Beast.'

The ballet of ‘The Small House of Uncle Thomas’ was performed by a second young casts of ballet dancers with Christina Leary and her dance troupe Pointe 2 Perfection Dance Studio. The ballet included the tiniest of dancers with a couple of taller young ladies to lead the way and it was adorable to watch. Choreographer Ben Orlando played the role of King Simon of Legree.

There was just one tiny glitch that only added to the charm of the production. The dry ice from Southington Ice House, LLC once again worked perfectly for the entrance of the ship when Anna arrives in Bangkok. And that ship...just wow! When the stage hands and the young men who made up the cast of Amazons split the boat apart, the audience was wowed. I loved the paper birds on long sticks held by the wives during the overture.
The program book that is packed with ads of many businesses and many photos of several cast members also contained ads for the Warner Theatre’s ‘Mary Poppins,’ Landmark’s ‘Grease,’ and Phoenix Stage Company’s ‘Baskerville.’ There is also a full page good-bye page from the director for Gabrielle and Kennedy, who both played Belle in last year’s ‘Beauty and the Beast and will age out of the program as they head to high school. “Although I will never direct you on stage again, I hope at some point in the future, we may work together again as actors in the same show,” writes Mr. Tansley.

All performances of ‘The King and I’ are dedicated to Mr. William (Bill) Black, a custodian at Blessed Sacrament School who was a long time friend of the children’s theater and recently passed away. I highly recommend a trip to Blessed Sacrament School in Waterbury to catch a performance of this show. The show ran just a little over three hours with the longish intermission, so a matinee would work well for the very young patron.Tickets are available for the remaining performances on Sunday. Popcorn, pretzels and candy are sold before the show and during the intermission and the winning raffle tickets for gift baskets are pulled during the intermission.