flower drum song

For other uses, see. Ta intercepts Mei-li at the docks and persuades her to remain in America; Ta leaves Club Chop Suey and the two become street performers as Chao departs for Hong Kong. [18], The three producers sought Chinese, or at least Asian, actors to fill the cast, an idea that was, at the time, considered "very risky". 2002 Broadway Revival. Many lines of dialogue were cut, and producer Fred Van Patten stated that "[w]hat we've done is cut things in the show that Asians said to make white people laugh. [60] Chapin called the musical "a naive, old fashioned, anti-feminist story with a truly great score. [31], In 1960, the London cast recording was released. The musical, much lighter-hearted than Lee's novel, was profitable on Broadway and was followed by a national tour. Ta brings Mei Li a wedding gift of a pair of his mother's earrings that she wore on her wedding day and tries unsuccessfully to hide the fact that he is now deeply in love with her. [16] Though the new story was less artistically adventurous than the earlier Rodgers and Hammerstein hits, it was innovative, even daring in its treatment of Asian-Americans, "an ethnic group that had long been harshly caricatured and marginalized in our mainstream pop culture."[14]. Flower Drum Song holds a special place for me because it was the first Broadway show I ever saw. In interviews, however, Hammerstein pointed out that he had, when necessary, written songs for previous shows while in rehearsals for them. A nice recording of a fine score. Soo's deadpan delivery that made him so popular on Barney Miller is working undertime here. In 2006, David Lewis compared the original script to Hwang's version: History never completely goes away. [87], When the national tour of the show visited the city of its setting, most San Francisco reviewers gave the show very positive reviews, though the Oakland Tribune critic described the musical as one "which has little by way of witty dialogue, outstanding songs or vigorous choreography". Flower Drum Song (The 2002 New Broadway Cast Recording) 22 Songs More by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lea … 1960 West End Premiere. [69] Variety called it "a bold theatrical operation, an artistic success". Ask them to accept Ezio Pinza as a Frenchman [in South Pacific], Yul Brynner as Siamese and they are prepared to meet you nine tenths of the way even before the curtain goes up. Agents were sent to other cities; in Honolulu, they found nightclub singer and native Hawaiian Ed Kenney, who would originate Wang Ta. Wang is also unhappy, despite the club's success, and it is no consolation the crowd is having a good time – after all, in the old country, no crowd ever came to his theater expecting to enjoy themselves. On arrival in the United States, Mei-li goes to the Golden Pearl Theatre in San Francisco's Chinatown, where little-attended Chinese opera is presented by her father's old friend Wang Chi-yang and Wang's foster brother Chin. "[14] Only the character names, the San Francisco Chinatown setting and some of the relationships were retained, but the pair sought to be faithful to the spirit of both Lee's novel and the musical's original concept of old-world and older generation values struggling with new-world temptations and the desires of the younger generation. ... Hwang felt it necessary to reduce the original, uniquely colorful story into just another backstager with a love triangle and lame jokes. 21. [94] The ballet dramatizes the confused romantic longings of Wang Ta towards the women in his life, and ends as he awakens in Helen Chao's bed. Though it received warm applause from the audience, the critics mostly panned it. [23], The team found it difficult to fill the remaining places in the company with Asian performers, especially in the chorus. Flower Drum Song, lobbycard, Nancy Kwan , 1961. Four of the New York leads, Hall, Soo, Kenney and Luke, joined the tour. If you liked him on Barney Miller, he's great here.James Shigeta took the place of one Ed Kenney from Broadway. [30] A number of changes were made to the songs. [74] Attendance was near-capacity during the first month of the run, but then dropped off precipitously. Flower Drum Song (1961) Movie Poster. [95] Thomas Hischak, in his The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, notes that the ballets in Oklahoma! Flower Drum Song returned to Broadway in 2002, with a revised book by David Henry Hwang. Miyoshi was very big news then. The drunken Ta spends the night at Helen's apartment ("Ballet"). 2002 Broadway Revival. Love, Look Away. [26] The role of Madam Liang, Master Wang's sister-in-law, fell to Juanita Hall, a light-skinned African American who had played a Tonkinese (Vietnamese) woman, Bloody Mary, in South Pacific. [77] Critic Karen Wada, in her afterword to the published script, blamed "the sluggish economy, post-September 11 jitters, the New York Times' mixed review, and unusually bitter winter weather" for the unexpectedly short run. [57] A well-attended production in Oakland in 1993 adhered strictly to the 1958 script, though part of the ballet was cut for lack of rehearsal time;[58] a more heavily censored 1996 production in San Mateo also did well at the box office. 'It was kind of a guilty pleasure ... and one of the only big Hollywood films where you could see a lot of really good Asian actors onscreen, singing and dancing and cracking jokes. Flower Drum Opera "Fighting Birds" deduces a love song … [14] By the late 1960s, the musical was rarely staged,[31] and was often relegated to dinner theater productions. Our editors have rounded up their most anticipated horror movies of the year. Brynner, who had gained fame in the team's 1951 hit, The King and I, was an accomplished director. 3:25 PREVIEW 22 SONGS, 59 MINUTES. “It was a virtually all-Asian cast and it had an actual romance between an … Flower Drum Song (1961) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Also available in the iTunes Store Other Versions. Flower Drum Song is clearly progressive for its time (a majority Asian cast in a film from the 1960s?? This concept is reflected in the struggle for survival of Wang's Chinese opera company, as it competes with the more modern, Americanized night club run by Ta. The album sold a relatively modest 300,000 copies, compared with sales of over a million copies for Rodgers and Hammerstein's next and final musical, The Sound of Music. [92] According to Ben Brantley in his review of the 2002 Broadway revival, the use by Rodgers "of repetitive Eastern musical structures gives the numbers a sing-song catchiness that, for better or worse, exerts a sticky hold on the memory. [92], Several of the characters are given "I am" songs that introduce them to the audience, allowing the character to express his dreams or desires and for onlookers to establish empathy with the character. Mary Rodgers later commented that Randall Duk Kim replaced Tzi Ma as Wang because she had admired Kim's performance as the Kralahome in the 1996 revival of The King and I, but Kim was unavailable for the Los Angeles run. Ta's blind date proves to be the thoroughly Americanized Linda Low, who we will learn is Sammy Fong's girlfriend and a stripper at his club. In the morning, Mei Li delivers Master Wang's coat for Helen to mend and is distressed to see Ta's dinner jacket there. He finds her in a fortune cookie factory working alongside Chao. Lee fled war-torn China in the 1940s and came to the United States, where he attended Yale University's playwriting program, graduating in 1947 with an M.F.A. The principal casts of major productions of the musical (and of the film) have been as follows: *Linda Low's singing voice was dubbed by B. J. Baker, and Chao's "Love, Look Away" was dubbed by Marilyn Horne. [5] While Oklahoma! [34] The show received six Tony Award nominations, but won only one Tony (Best Conductor and Musical Director, for Salvatore Dell'Isola). The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was subsequently made into a 1961 musical film. It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. Use the IMDb rating plugin changes when Ta sees her in a house in with! 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