The King and I opened on Broadway on March 29, 1951. The musical is based on a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn was adapted from the real-life reminiscences of Anna Leonowens, as recounted in her own books, The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem. It is 1862 in Siam when an English widow, Anna Leonowens, arrives with her young son at the Royal...