Ken Watanabe due to return to ‘The King and I’ on March 17

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FILE - In this June 7, 2015 file photo, Ken Watanabe arrives at the 69th annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York. A publicist for Watanabe says the Tony Award- and Oscar-nominated actor has been forced to delay his return to Broadway’s “The King and I” while he battles stomach cancer. The actor has undergone endoscopic surgery and is recuperating at a hospital in Japan. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Ken Watanabe will return to his royal robes on Broadway in “The King and I” starting March 17 after he recovers from stomach cancer treatment.

Lincoln Center Theater said Thursday that the Tony- and Oscar-nominated actor will take over the role from Hoon Lee.

Watanabe, the 56-year-old Japanese actor, made his American stage debut last year, earning a Tony nod opposite Kelli O’Hara in the revival of “The King and I.”

He was due to return to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical March 1 but had to postpone after undergoing endoscopic surgery for stomach cancer in Japan.

The actor wrote on his Twitter account that the early stage cancer was found in a medical checkup. He wrote in Japanese, “I hate to worry you, but please wait.”

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