Musicals Blog

Flower Drum Song

by Claire J Rottenberg


Although the "Flower Drum Song" did not win any major Tony awards, the play was a success and it was nominated for 6 Tony awards, including the award for Best Musical in 1959. It opened on Broadway on December 1, 1958 and it closed almost 1-1/2 years later, after running for 600 performances. The original Broadway production was directed by Gene Kelly (his first Broadway direction) with choreography by Carol Haney (Tony nominee).

Both the Broadway play and the movie version of "Flower Drum Song" broke ground by having mostly Asian casts. Although years later the play was perceived as negative by some in the Asian-American community, the story can be viewed in its historical context as a wonderful depiction of the struggles of two generations trying to come to grips with each other and the traditions of their conflicting cultures, similar to the way one can view "Fiddler on the Roof." A much revised revival of the musical played on Broadway in 2002.

Four members of the original Broadway cast appeared in the movie, three recreating their Broadway roles (Myoshi Umeki as Mei Li, Juanita Hall as Madame Liang, and Patrick Adiarte as Wang San) and Jack Soo, taking a lead role in the film as Sammy Wong. The rest of the actors and actresses in the film version were of Asian or Asian-American descent. Very gifted performers were hired for the film, including James Shigeta who thrilled audiences with his beautiful singing, good acting and handsome looks, and the beautiful Nancy Kwanwho had the chance to demonstrate her dancing talents in the film. Her singing voice, however, was dubbed.

The music for "Flower Drum Song" was written by the successful team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Only one song from the original play was eliminated from the film - "Like a God" sung by James Shigeta's character.

The movie version of "Flower Drum Song" is a wonderful, happy musical with great music, dancing, singing, and acting. However, it was not a very successful film and it did not receive any major Academy Award nominations. It was only released about a year ago on DVD and it was the last of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals to be available on DVD.

Learn more about Flower Drum Song