Anna Leonowens eccentric Victorian female traveler". The novel was adapted as a hit musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, "The King and I" (1951), starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, which ran 1,246 performances on Broadway and was also a hit in London and on tour. In 1956, a film version was released, with Deborah Kerr starring in the role of Leonowens and Brynner reprising his role as the king. Revived many times on stage (with Brynner starring in revivals until 1985), the musical has remained a favourite of the theatregoing public. The humorous depiction of Mongkut as a polka-dancing despot, as well
Anna Leonowens to London, was better known by his stage name of Boris Karloff, making Anna his grand-aunt. Anna Edwards never approved of her sister's marriage, and her self-imposed separation from the family was so complete that, decades later, when a Pratt relative contacted her, she replied by threatening suicide if he persisted. Anna's mother, Mary Edwards, a widow, later married an Irish soldier, Patrick Donohoe of the Royal Engineers. Anna Edwards's relationship with her stepfather Donohoe was not a happy one, and she later accused him of putting pressure on her, like her sister (with whom she also fell out), to