A PACKED house testified to the enduring popularity of a show that premiered on Broadway back in 1951.

But though largely warm-hearted and well-meaning, some attitudes – particularly towards other cultures – didn’t pass muster in the modern world.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King And I, based on a 1944 novel which was itself inspired by memoirs harking back to the 1860s, was a period piece when it opened 60 years ago.

Now it seems doubly dated. For the Victorian attitudes it recalls are dealt with in a way which, from a 2012 perspective, seem out of kilter with how we are encouraged to think.

The King of Siam – now Thailand – hires an English governess to educate his many children (67 at the first count, more by the time the curtain falls) in the ways of the West.

He is presented to us – here in the shape of Ramon Tikaram (long-haired rather than shaven-headed as Yul Brynner was in the 1956 film) – as a dictatorial but rather child-like character.

The bossy governess with her English sensibilities challenges then appeals to a monarch who wants his country to seem grown up. Probably 1950s audiences were more ambivalent about the merits of colonialism than we are today.

All that said, The King And I boasts some fabulous musical numbers. Try to banish Getting to Know You from your head once heard, and it was very nicely sung here by Lori Haley Fox (sharing the role on tour with Josefina Gabrielle).

There is also no denying this production’s grand and sumptuous look, what with its enormous gold Buddhas and its coloured lanterns.

With all that and the soaring tunes, the opening scenes progressed towards the interval like a stately liner of old.

After the interval things liven up with a play within a play when Tup-Tim, the girl given as a present by the neighbouring King of Burma, tries to shame the king.

This was great, my favourite scene, full of interesting dancing, dialogue and singing. I started to like the show a lot more.

I didn’t particularly care when the king died at the end.

Neither, to be fair, did Anna seem that bothered.

But I was glad I went for the ride and I still can’t get those great tunes out of my head.