Samurai Take On Role of King of Siam
In the wrong hands, “The King and I,” could feel a little Disneyish. And then there’s the Yul Brynner problem. It was Brynner, who put his stamp on the role of the King of Siam in 1951. He was still doing the role just months before his death in 1985. How do you get audiences to let go of that hard-to-forget image and move on?
選錯了角，「國王與我」可能會有點迪士尼味。此外，還有尤勃連納的問題。是尤勃連納1951年把暹羅王一角變成了他的招牌。1985年去世前幾個月，他還在演這個角色。如何才能讓觀眾忘卻那難忘的形象，繼續向前行？
In his revival of “The King and I,” which opens April 16 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Bartlett Sher has solved the cutesiness problem the same way he made his acclaimed 2008 revival of “South Pacific” seem fresh and relevant – by going back to the Rodgers and Hammerstein vision and emphasizing how the historical subtext mirrors our world today. To step out of Brynner’s long shadow, he hired Ken Watanabe, a Japanese movie star who has never sung or danced onstage and whose English is a work in progress.
巴特雷．薛爾重新搬上舞台的「國王與我」，將於4月16日在林肯中心的維維安博蒙特劇院首演，他已解決了矯揉造作的問題，用他2008年把「南太平洋」重新搬上舞台的相同方式，讓它顯得新鮮而且和我們有關。藉由回到羅傑斯與漢默斯坦的版本，強調歷史涵義如何反映我們現今的世界。為了走出尤勃連納巨大的身影，他聘請從不曾在舞台上唱歌跳舞的日本影星渡邊謙，而他的英文還在進步中。
This Lincoln Center Theater production, which also stars the Broadway headliner Kelli O’Hara, is not just the story of an English schoolteacher and a Siamese sovereign trying to overcome a cultural divide. Onstage those differences are really there.
這齣林肯中心劇院製作的音樂劇，也請來百老匯硬底子明星凱莉．奧哈拉擔綱，此劇不僅是一位英國女老師與暹羅國王試圖克服文化分歧的故事。在舞台上，這些文化差異確實存在。
“With Ken, you really feel that you have someone from an ancient kingdom meeting someone from the West for the first time,” Mr. Sher said.
薛爾說：「有了渡邊謙，你真的感覺你讓來自古老王國的某人與來自西方的某人初次見面。」
He knew he wanted to cast Mr. Watanabe, Mr. Sher said, as soon as he saw him in the 2007 Clint Eastwood movie “Letters From Iwo Jima,” in which he plays the general in command of the doomed Japanese force. “I said to myself: ‘That guy’s a king,’ ” Mr. Sher flew out to Vancouver, where Mr. Watanabe was making “Godzilla.”
薛爾說，他看到渡邊謙在2007年克林伊斯威特的電影「來自硫磺島的信」中飾演指揮難逃一死的日軍的將軍，就知道他要找渡邊謙演出。「我對自己說：『那傢伙是國王。』」薛爾飛到溫哥華，渡邊謙在當地拍「哥吉拉」。
“Really?” Mr. Watanabe said to him. “In English? A musical? Oh no, no, no, I can never do this.”
渡邊謙對他說：「當真？用英語？音樂劇？哦，不，不，不，這我絕對做不來。」
In person, Mr. Watanabe is friendly, direct and disarming. But he is also a big, striking man who carries himself with confidence. On the second day of rehearsal, he slipped a long purple robe over his hoodie and sweats, and instantly became a ruler. He had already shaved his head, Brynner-fashion. He was worried that if he didn’t the audience might “hold back their feelings,” he said, and he hoped that this way he might lure them in.
渡邊謙私底下友善、直率、讓人不設防。但他也是高大、顯眼的男人，信心滿滿。在第二天的排演中，他在連帽運動衣外披上一件紫色長袍，立刻變成了一個統治者。他已剃了光頭，尤勃連納的風格。他說，他擔心如果不剃觀眾也許「難以認同」，他希望能用這種方式讓他們入戲。
“It’s like come, come, and then you’ll get pulled into the maze,” he explained.
他解釋說：「就像是，來吧，來吧，接著你就被拉入迷宮。」
Instead of opening the scene the way it’s usually done, with the king seated on his throne, Mr. Sher wanted Mr. Watanabe, attended by a kowtowing retinue, to walk the length of the Beaumont’s thrust stage. Mr. Watanabe obliged with a stroll that was regal and businesslike, and when he stopped to hear that the French had just colonized Cambodia (dialogue that Mr. Sher discovered in the original script), he registered kingly alarm and annoyance at those predatory Europeans.
開場的一幕不用過去的方式，也就是讓國王坐在王位上，薛爾要渡邊謙在卑躬的隨扈陪伴下，在博蒙特劇院伸展的舞台上走全場。渡邊謙依指示有如帝王般正經八百散步。當他停下腳步，聽到法國剛剛把柬埔寨納為殖民地（薛爾在原劇本裡發現這段對話），他以國王之尊表現出對這些歐洲掠奪者的警惕和惱怒。
Mr. Sher nodded his approval. When he was out of Mr. Watanabe’s hearing, he said: “When we first started working, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is maybe one of the best actors I’ve been around in my life.’ So many choices, so many things he can do. He’s got so much capacity for so many different kinds of work that it’s off the charts.”
薛爾點頭表示讚許。他在渡邊謙聽不到的地方說：「當我們第一次開始工作時，我心裡想，『我的老天，這也許是我這輩子碰到最好的演員』。他可以做這麼多選擇，這麼多事。他能力超強，能做這麼多超凡的不同工作。」
In casual conversation, Mr. Watanabe can more than hold his own in English. Over lunch one day, he explained that he grew up in Koide, Japan, and that as a boy he studied the trumpet, hoping to become a musician. But when he was 13, his father, a calligraphy teacher, became ill, and there was no longer enough money for music lessons.
在閒談中，渡邊謙的英文應付裕如。某天午餐時，他說到在日本新潟縣北魚沼郡小出町長大，童年學吹喇叭，想做音樂家。但13歲時他身為書法老師的父親病了，不再有錢供他上音樂課。
He decided to become an actor and was accepted into the very rigorous drama school run by the Japanese theater troupe En. He picked up a bit of English while studying Shakespeare there. But he didn’t begin to learn the language seriously until 2003, when he was cast in the Tom Cruise movie “The Last Samurai.”
他決定成為演員，進入日本「圓」劇團經營的嚴格戲劇學校。他在學校讀莎士比亞戲劇時學了點英文。但直到2003年才開始認真學英文，當時他在湯姆克魯斯的電影「末代武士」裡演一角。
That role led to parts in more American movies, including “Batman Begins,” “Inception,” and the forthcoming Gus Van Sant film “Sea of Trees.” Like Javier Bardem and Marion Cotillard, Mr. Watanabe has become a crossover star, though he is far bigger in Japan.
這個角色讓他參與更多美國片的演出，包括「蝙蝠俠：開戰時刻」、「全面啟動」，以及即將上映的葛斯．范．桑的「樹海」（暫譯）。就像哈維爾巴登和瑪莉詠柯蒂亞，渡邊謙成為跨界明星，不過他在日本的名氣更大得多。
Ms. O’Hara said of working with Mr. Watanabe: “It’s like life imitating art, or vice versa. You couldn’t get more like the story.”
奧哈拉談到與渡邊謙的合作：「就像人生如戲，或戲如人生。像極了這個故事。」
（田思怡譯）
Samurai Take On Role of King of Siam
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