Hayley Mills, star of touring 'King and I,' matures in public

When the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens tonight at the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, it will be Hayley Mills' first performance on an American stage, and it could be a shock.

For fans who remember her as the eternally outgoing, freckle-faced kid in early '60s movies such as The Parent Trap, Pollyanna, Summer Magic and Whistle Down the Wind: "It will be shock, horror, fainting in the aisles," said Mills, who is 51. "My God, she's grown up! Of course, for others there may be some surprise that I'm still alive."

While many former child actors resent the public's refusal to let them grow up, Mills relishes her youthful achievements.

Who: By Rodgers and Hammerstein, starring Hayley Mills. Where: Historic Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Minneapolis, MN. When: Opens today at 8 p.m. Plays through April 12, Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $21 to $57; call (612) 989-5151.

"Actually, what I've quite liked is the sense I get that we've traveled down that old road together," she said. "I really do like the association I've had with people's childhoods, discovering that my movies coincided with happy, significant times in people's lives and I've marked those moments for them."

In The King and I, Mills plays Anna Leonowens, an Englishwoman who became governess to the king of Siam in the 1860s. It's not a new role for Mills.

"No, I played it in Australia for nine months in 1991 and '92, and I enjoyed it enormously," she said by phone from New York, where she was busy rehearsing the touring show. "It's a wonderful role and doubly so since she was a real person and it's based on a true story. It was a fascinating time. The real king ended up with something like 600 wives and, well, how many children? Of course, he needed a schoolmistress. Anna was the first European to have any impact on the king."

Personal dramas

Her characterization has changed since she first did it, she said. "A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, a lot of personal events in my life. Subtly, that changes a character. I'm sure she's more dramatic now, far more emotional and mature than she was in Australia."

Those personal dramas have been well documented, at least in her hometown London tabloid press. Her son Crispian, 24, fathered by her first husband, director Roy Boulting (who was 32 years older than she), is the lead singer of the fast-rising rock band Kula Shaker, which is on its first American tour and will be playing First Avenue on April 9. Her second son, Ace, 24 (fathered by her former companion, actor Leigh Lawson), is a student.

Then she recently ended a 13-year relationship with rock musician Marcus Maclaine, 18 years her junior and the brother of actor Maxwell Caulfield, who happens to be married to her sister, Juliet Mills.

It's been a theatrical life, fitting for a girl who grew up in a theatrical family. The daughter of actor John Mills and writer Mary Hayley Bell (who wrote Whistle Down the Wind), she insists her childhood was happy. She and her actress-sister, Juliet (Nanny and the Professor), remain very close: "I'm extremely lucky that my best friend is my sister," she said.

She made her first film, Tiger Bay, at age 12 in 1959. For the next six years, she made movies hand over fist, including a Disney film every year. Then, her childhood disappearing, she fell out of sight as far as most of the public was concerned, emerging only once, in 1983 on PBS's acclaimed serial The Flame Trees of Thika.

The 'civilized' theater

She hasn't been entirely out of sight, however. She has worked steadily and contentedly in the British theater. "There's nothing like the stage," she said. "I love the whole experience: the investigation during rehearsals, the relationship you develop with other actors and, finally, with audiences.

"It does require a sustained courage and concentration, but I must admit I also love the lifestyle. In movies you were up at the crack of dawn and had your big close-up by 8 a.m. Frightful! I was never very keen to get up that early. And that meant getting to bed frightfully early and never getting near alcohol. Theater is more civilized. You finish the play, go out for a leisurely dinner, have a glass of wine, go to bed at a decent hour. It's much better. And it leaves you home during the day to watch your kids grow up."

She did one musical before The King and I, a production of Trelawney of the Wells in 1970 -- "but it was terribly difficult," she recalled. "I was wrapped in crinolines and corsets, things that make life quite trying, and I felt like a whale most of the time. And the part was written very high. I'm basically an actress, not a singer; I can carry a tune, but it was hard. In 'King and I', the music is beautifully integrated into each scene. The dialogue is suddenly supported by music, and before you know it, hardly realizing it, you're singing: It's lovely."

She signed to do the American tour for a year, a grueling trip for which she has prepared by adhering to a strict vegetarian diet. "So, while it sounds like an astonishingly long time, I'm really looking forward to visiting all those American cities I've never been to. I hope this doesn't sound too, well, Pollyanna-ish, but I think it's going to be wonderful to be a gypsy for a year."

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