Chinese stowaway Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki) arrives in San Francisco with her father to meet her fiancé, wealthy nightclub owner Sammy Fong (Jack Soo), in an arranged marriage, but the groom has his eye on his star singer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan). Linda Low, for example, expresses her self-confidence with "I Enjoy Being a Girl"; we learn Mei Li's hopes with the quieter "I Am Going to Like It Here". "[86] Critic Kenneth Tynan, in The New Yorker magazine, alluded to the show The World of Suzie Wong in dismissing Flower Drum Song with the spoonerism, "a world of woozy song". The wealthy refugee lives in a house in Chinatown with his two sons. [2] The show attracted considerable advance sales; even when these were exhausted, sales remained strong and sellouts were the norm. Flower Drum Song is clearly progressive for its time (a majority Asian cast in a film from the 1960s?? "[90] Brantley disagreed, writing, "because the show's satiric point of view is so muddled, there's no verve in such numbers, no joy in the performing of them."[65]. in 1943, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written two musicals in the 1950s that did not do well and sought a new hit to revive their fortunes. The nightclub is profitable; the Chinese opera is not. [82], Of the seven major New York newspaper drama reviewers, five gave the show very positive reviews. [8] Rodgers was still recovering from an operation for cancer in a tooth socket, and he was drinking heavily[9] and suffering from depression. By this time, Hammerstein was in his final illness (he died in August 1960), and none of the three producers accompanied the show on the road. Sammy offers to sign the contract over to the Wang family: this would free Sammy from the contract and arrange a suitable wife for Ta. Chinese-American woman tries to expose illegal alien smuggling ring. [70], The success of the Los Angeles run sparked sufficient investment to move the show to Broadway. Looking for more? Brynner, who had gained fame in the team's 1951 hit, The King and I, was an accomplished director. Nancy Kwan – Linda Low. Il musical segna l'ottava collaborazione tra Rodgers e Hammerstein ed è tratto dal romanzo di Chin Yang Lee The Flower Drum Song (1957). [44], Michael Phillips of the Los Angeles Times called the show "wholly revised and gleefully self-aware ... a few tons short of a mega-musical – no fake helicopters here, no power ballads saccharine enough to stop Communism in its tracks. Sammy drinks from the traditional wedding goblet, then offers the goblet to his new bride. A talented dancer, he was cast as Wang San, Ta's thoroughly Americanized younger brother. They also removed the darker elements of Lee's work, including Helen Chao's suicide after her desperate fling with Ta, added the festive nightclub subplot and emphasized the romantic elements of the story. She will sing a song with the flower drum: "A Hundred Million Miracles." Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. It's one that ... needs changes. A businessman moves to Hong Kong to pursue a career as an artist and falls in love with a prostitute he hires as a model. She agrees, but she needs family consent and lies, saying that she has a brother who will approve the marriage. Chinese stowaway Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki) arrives in San Francisco with her father to meet her fiancé, wealthy nightclub owner Sammy Fong (Jack Soo), in an arranged marriage, but the groom has his eye on his star singer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan). While his sons and sister-in-law are integrating into American culture, Wang stubbornly resists assimilation and speaks only two words of English, "Yes" and "No". [98] Patrick Adiarte, who originated the role of Wang San, however, saw it as "corny stuff ... put in there to get a laugh". [92], Having decided that record companies were profiting more from the sales of their cast albums than they were, Rodgers and Hammerstein formed their own record company to produce the cast recording for the original production of Flower Drum Song. According to his daughters, Mary and Linda, this did not put a stop to his drinking. [10] In June 1957, Rodgers checked himself into Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, and he remained there for twelve weeks. Flower Drum Song is a 1961 American musical film directed by Henry Koster, adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, in turn based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author Chin Yang Lee. Wang wants the bar and its "evil spirits" shut down; his sister-in-law informs him that free enterprise cannot be shut down, and the two wonder at the foibles of the younger generation ("The Other Generation"). One night a week, Wang's son Ta turns the theater into a nightclub, starring the very assimilated Linda Low, a Chinese-American stripper from Seattle. C.Y. Author C. Y. Lee, who had quietly watched the rehearsals, recalled that, at the Boston performances, Hammerstein would have a secretary mark on the script any sound of the chairs squeaking, as indicating that the audience was restless. [67] When it finally opened on October 14, 2001,[68] the production received rave reviews from the Los Angeles critics. [31], The musical opened for tryouts on October 27, 1958 at Boston's Shubert Theatre. "The Other Generation" was cut from the revival. On awakening in her bed, he agrees to an affair, but eventually abandons her, and she commits suicide. "[15] Lewis notes that Chao's role, though diminished in the musical, nevertheless gives it some of its darkest moments, and she serves much the same purpose as Jud Fry: to be, in Hammerstein's words, "the bass fiddle that gives body to the orchestration of the story". It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. [31] As early as mid-1961, the musical was licensed for local productions. [38] Fewer Asian performers were used in London; the West End production starred Yau Shan Tung as Mei Li, Kevin Scott as Ta, George Minami as Wang, Yama Saki as Linda Low, Tim Herbert as Sammy Fong and Ida Shepley as Madam Liang. A cast album for Hwang's revision was released in 2002 featuring strong performances from Lea Salonga as Mei-li and Jose Llana as Wang Ta. [36], Midway through the run, Larry Blyden left the show and was replaced in the role of Sammy Fong by Jack Soo, with Larry Leung assuming the role of Frankie Wing. [56] The author gave a rare public interview to defend his novel and the musical adaptation. [85] Ward Morehouse applauded Suzuki for having "a brassy voice and the assurance of a younger Ethel Merman" and termed the production "an excellent Broadway show" though "[p]erhaps it doesn't belong in the same world ... as The King and I and Carousel. This documentary centers around a performance by tap dancers Bunny Briggs, Howard "Sandman" Sims and Chuck Green at a Harlem club backed by a band lead by Lionel Hampton. During this rendition, she sings about the miracle of changing weather. Was this review helpful to you? [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. Nevertheless, she called the touring production superior to the Broadway one. Lee's novel centers on Wang Chi-yang, a 63-year-old man who fled China to avoid the communists. Flower Drum Song at CIC Cebu, Cebu City. On the date with Ta ("I Enjoy Being a Girl"), Linda lies to Ta about her career and family. Nightclub owner Sammy Fong arrives with an offer for Ta's immigrant father, Master Wang, a very old-fashioned Chinatown elder. Ta slowly is becoming attracted to Mei-li, who now serves as a waitress, but he has competition from fortune cookie factory worker Chao, whom Mei-li met on the slow journey from China, and who is rapidly becoming discontented with America. [23], The team found it difficult to fill the remaining places in the company with Asian performers, especially in the chorus. Hoff-Wallace, Philip. Ta arrives home to admit that his father was right, Mei Li is the girl for him. It received mostly poor reviews in New York and closed after six months but had a short tour and has since been produced regionally. By the 1950s, he was barely making a living writing short stories and working as a Chinese teacher, translator and journalist for San Francisco Chinatown newspapers. In 1958, Blyden replaced Larry Storch as "Sammy Fong" in the out-of-town tryouts for the musical Flower Drum Song. A US Air Force major in Kobe confronts his own opposition to marriages between American servicemen and Japanese women when he falls for a beautiful performer. [78] Lee also felt that the influential Times review had hurt the show's acceptance, but commented that Hwang added some dialogue to Act II after the Los Angeles run that Lee felt slowed the show down. Hwang's champions are unlikely to fade away, either, in rhetorical defeat. [33], After the Boston tryouts, Flower Drum Song opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on December 1, 1958. The movie has been adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, that was written by the music composer Richard Rodgers. The contract is void, and that gives both Sammy and Ta the opportunity to marry their true loves, Linda and Mei Li. '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. (Chin Yang) Lee", "Hwang and Kwan to Attend Final Benefit Performance of, "Photo Call: Flower Drum Song in San Jose", "Rodgers and Hammerstein score again with, "Original Broadway Cast – Flower Drum Song", I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair, The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flower_Drum_Song&oldid=1004878824, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, A Hundred Million Miracles – Mei Li, Dr. Li, Wang, Madam Liang and Liu Ma, Chop Suey – Madam Liang, Wang and Ensemble, Gliding Through My Memories – Frankie and Girls, The Other Generation – Madam Liang and Wang, The Other Generation (Reprise) – Wang San and Children, This page was last edited on 4 February 2021, at 21:30. "[83] The New York Daily Mirror termed it, "Another notable work by the outstanding craftsmen of our musical theatre ... a lovely show, an outstanding one in theme and treatment. "[84] Less enthusiastic, however, was the longtime New York Times critic, Brooks Atkinson, who repeatedly described it as merely "pleasant". Rodgers was present, but kept falling asleep. Harvard announces his intention to return home and attempt a reconciliation with his disappointed parents. Linda's friend, seamstress Helen Chao, who has been unable to find a man despite the shortage of eligible women in Chinatown, gets Ta drunk and seduces him. That show later became a blockbuster movie, and eventually, in 2004, playwright David Henry Huang did a drastic revision of the plot. Linda's constant companion is a gay costume designer, Harvard (so named by his success-obsessed Chinese parents). Flower Drum Song (subtitled A Jazz Interpretation by the Mastersounds) is an album by The Mastersounds led by vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery with pianist Richie Crabtree, bassist Monk Montgomery and drummer Benny Barth featuring performances of tunes from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical Flower Drum Song recorded in 1958 and released on the World … With the summer approaching, generally a bad time for attendance, it was decided to close the show, and the last Broadway performance was given on May 7, 1960.[37]. The revival, which opened on October 17, 2002, starred Lea Salonga, Sandra Allen and Jose … [63] Hwang was inexperienced at writing musicals, and the producers hired veteran Robert Longbottom to direct the production and collaborate on the new script, "really a new musical which has a pre-existing score. Act I: [21] Once the songs were finalized, Robert Russell Bennett, who had orchestrated several of the creators' most successful previous shows, did the same for the score of Flower Drum Song. Even professional companies found it difficult to round up an entire cast of Asian singer-dancer-actors. Linda does her striptease, realizing too late who is sitting at the best table. Archie Rice, an old-time British music hall performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business. Act II: Wang Ta, a young Chinese-American man living in his father's house in San Francisco's Chinatown, discusses the problems of finding a wife with his aunt, Madam Liang ("You Are Beautiful") before hurrying off on a blind date. [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. Flower Drum Song returned to Broadway in 2002, with a revised book by David Henry Hwang. "[65] The most oriental-sounding song in the work is "A Hundred Million Miracles", which provides the eight-note drumbeat which is the musical signature of the work from overture to curtain. Flower Drum Song, that rarity among Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, a moderate hit (otherwise, their shows were either smashes like South Pacific or flops like Me & Juliet), also became a moderately successful film in late 1961, three years after its Broadway opening; it just barely ranked among the ten highest-grossing movies of 1962. Flower Drum Song (1961) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Four of the New York leads, Hall, Soo, Kenney and Luke, joined the tour. [19] They cast Keye Luke, well known as Charlie Chan's Number One Son, as Master Wang. [11], Hammerstein, meanwhile, was in Los Angeles at the filming of South Pacific. [43] San Francisco gave the show a rapturous reception when it opened at the Curran Theatre on August 1. [66] The revival was originally planned for the 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, but to save money he moved it to the nearby 739-seat Mark Taper Forum. But now, Mei Li wants nothing to do with him, and the Lis leave the Wang home. The show ran for 600 performances. Don't dismiss it out of hand - it's no "Joy Luck Club" or "Double Happiness" but it's not bad, either. "[69] The Hollywood Reporter thought the revival was, "while not perfect, an exhilarating accomplishment". Impatient at Ta's inability to find a wife, Wang arranges for a picture bride for his son. Attendance began to decline in December 1959, though it continued to draw at above the 70% of capacity level which a Broadway play then needed to meet expenses. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! If you are going to perpetuate one at least give him better jokes. The audience gave it an enthusiastic response, causing Rodgers to leave his seat repeatedly and race to the back of the theatre, looking for someone to hug. Certificate: Passed Dick and Oscar and Joe mined C. Y. Lee's novel for the generational conflict and for the three women who substantiated Ta's honorable search for love. When it was put on the stage, lines and songs that might be offensive were often cut. The remastered audio is clear, & the added features of the subtitles is nice - especially if you don't hear/understand accents. An advertisement in New York Chinatown newspapers received one response. Flower Drum Song opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on December 1, 1958, starring Miyoshi Umeki, Pat Suzuki, Larry Blyden, Juanita Hall and Ed Kenney. An Australian nurse discovers an effective new treatment for infantile paralysis, but experiences great difficulty in convincing doctors of the validity of her claims. In July, however, he fell ill and was hospitalized for a month. A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love. Title: [72] Hwang considerably altered and trimmed his long script during Broadway rehearsals and previews; "The Next Time It Happens" was removed from the show. In the morning, Mei Li delivers Master Wang's coat for Helen to mend and is distressed to see Ta's dinner jacket there. 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. A young woman grows tired of providing for her family. The revival, which opened on October 17, 2002, starred Lea Salonga, Sandra Allen and Jose … [34] The show received six Tony Award nominations, but won only one Tony (Best Conductor and Musical Director, for Salvatore Dell'Isola). [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]. Rodgers and Hammerstein transformed a song entitled "She Is Beautiful" into "You Are Beautiful". The piece did not return to Broadway until 2002, when a version with a plot by playwright David Henry Hwang (but retaining most of the original songs) was presented after a successful Los Angeles run. Meanwhile, Wang now finds himself attracted to Madam Liang, and the two have dinner together, though they decide not to marry ("Don't Marry Me"). [25] The role of Fong proved difficult to cast. According to Hischak, the individual performers do not sing as well as the New York cast; the London recording's strong points are the nightclub numbers. [75], The production was directed and choreographed by Longbottom, with scenic design by Robin Wagner, costume design by Gregg Barnes and lighting design by Natasha Katz. [61] Hwang's involvement was soon revealed, and in 1997, C. Y. Lee announced that the rewrite had his approval. The Flower Drum Song is a novel by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, first published in 1957. The production, which had been scheduled for a three-week run, closed early. "[65], In September 2000, after development through a series of workshops, the new version was presented at two well-attended workshops for potential backers. Ta returns home and meets Mei Li, who is immediately attracted to him ("I Am Going to Like It Here"), though Ta is unimpressed. honestly gagged at this! He comments that since the 1958 version of the musical was rarely revived, the film "would in future years come to stand for the stage musical it so crassly misrepresented"[47] and would serve as the version that academics and latter-day theatre critics would judge when they analyzed the musical. Two detectives seek a stripper's killer in the Japanese quarter of Los Angeles, but a love triangle threatens their friendship. 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. See how many you recognize now that they're grown up. In 2006, David Lewis compared the original script to Hwang's version: History never completely goes away. Sammy Fong and Linda decide to get married ("Sunday"), but when he goes to the Three Family Association (a benevolent association)[17] to announce Linda as his bride, he finds Mei Li and her father there, and the elders insist that he honor his betrothal to the immigrant girl. Flower Drum Song is just as I remembered it from the BIG screen @ Gruman's Chinese Theater. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film. Chinese stowaway Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki) arrives in San Francisco with her father to meet her fiancé, wealthy nightclub owner Sammy Fong (Jack Soo), in an arranged marriage, but the groom has his eye on his star singer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan). Sammy has taken the liberty of bringing the girl and her father with him; Wang is charmed ("A Hundred Million Miracles") and invites them to live in his home on the understanding that if the proposed marriage falls through, Fong will still be bound to marry Mei Li. Sammy Fong arrives and quickly penetrates Linda's scheme: Linda, frustrated by the five years she has been seeing Sammy, is determined to marry someone, and if Sammy won't step forward, she will settle for Ta. [101] The original cast album is relatively complete, even including parts of the Wedding Parade, though it does not include the ballet. Act II: She became the first Linda Low, as Ta's nightclub love interest was renamed. [32] Shortly after the Boston opening, Fields suffered a heart attack, and, after his release from the hospital, he had to return to New York to recuperate. That summer, the San Diego Civic Light Opera filled the 4,324-seat Balboa Park Bowl to overflowing for a highly successful run of the musical. [31], In 1960, the London cast recording was released. Mei-li is fascinated by Linda, who urges her to adopt the American lifestyle ("I Enjoy Being a Girl"). Outraged at Harvard's poor acting skills, Wang takes the stage in his place, his stage instincts take over ("Gliding Through My Memories"), and he is soon an enthusiastic supporter of the change, taking the stage name Sammy Fong. The firm sent the manuscript to an elderly reader for evaluation. He vows to marry her after she is falsely accused by the household servants of stealing a clock, though his father forbids it. ... Hwang felt it necessary to reduce the original, uniquely colorful story into just another backstager with a love triangle and lame jokes. Check out some of our favorite child stars from movies and television. and Carousel (choreographed by Agnes de Mille) broke new ground in illustrating facets of the characters beyond what is learned in songs and dialogue, but describes the ballet in Flower Drum Song as "pleasant but not memorable". They had, however, been working since 1956 on the popular television version of Cinderella, which was broadcast on CBS on March 31, 1957. 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. This forced him to hurry his writing, as the production team had hoped to have the show in rehearsal by the start of September; this was postponed by two weeks. [2] In addition, producers found the show to be thinly plotted, and the songs not integrated as organically with the characters and story, as compared with Rodgers and Hammerstein's most popular musicals. [27] Another African-American performer, Diahann Carroll, was considered for the cast but not hired. Linda comes to Madam Liang's graduation party from citizenship school with Linda's "brother" (actually the comedian from Sammy's nightclub) and presents herself as Ta's intended, with her "brother" giving his consent for the marriage. 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