Local Theater gets rights to perform “The King and I”

If you’re a fan of the musical “The King and I,” you’ve probably noticed no one has done the show locally for many years. That’s because it was not being licensed, but through some persistence and patience one local group finally got the rights to perform it.

Blackfoot Community Players director Sharon Hoge has been wanting to do the show for years but there was a problem – a revival of the show was playing on Broadway so they were not granting rights for it to be performed elsewhere.

“So the minute it closed on Broadway I started asking for the rights and they made me delay for a couple weeks, because they thought that it might be out on a national tour soon enough that they weren’t going to allow us to do it,” director Sharon Hoge said. “When they came back and gave us the rights, I hurried and got it into production as soon as I could, because I was afraid they were going to change their minds.”

The show has a cast and crew of more than 80 people. It is being performed at 7:30 each night through Aug. 20 at the Blackfoot Performing Arts Center.

Tickets are $10 and are available at the website blackfootcommunityplayers.com.