Getting to Know You (song) Getting to Know You (song) "Getting to Know You" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I". It was first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in the original Broadway production and later by Marni Nixon who dubbed for Deborah Kerr in the 1956 film adaptation. In the show, Anna, a British schoolteacher who has been hired as a governess, sings the song as she strikes up a warm and affectionate relationship with the children and the wives of the King of Siam. This song is one of the cases during the Rodgers and Hammerstein
The King and I entire score to Lawrence, including Lawrence's own songs. Lawrence listened calmly, but when she met Rodgers and Hammerstein the following day, she treated Rodgers coldly, apparently seeing the composer's actions as flaunting her vocal deficiencies. Hammerstein and Rodgers' doubts about whether Lawrence could handle the part were assuaged by the sheer force of her acting. James Poling, a writer for "Collier's" who was allowed to attend the rehearsals, wrote of Lawrence preparing "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?": At his first meeting with Sharaff, Brynner, who had only a fringe of hair, asked what he was to