Fresh from a successful rewrite of the new Broadway musical "Aida"-a success that was anything but certain only a month ago-playwright David Henry Hwang has a new musical project on his horizon. In truth, it's an old musical project: the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein tuner "Flower Drum Song."
The Center Theater Group in Los Angeles will produce the musical next year with a new book by Hwang. Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields wrote the original libretto, based on a novel by C.Y. Lee. In their book, Hammerstein and Fields invented a major new character and shifted the focus away from the novel's protagonist, a Chinese patriarch, in favor of a love triangle involving three younger characters. The resulting show, for which Hammerstein also supplied lyrics and Richard Rodgers composed music, ran for 600 performances on Broadway. It was produced in London and was made into a movie, but has never had a major revival.
Hwang, who won a Tony Award for "M. Butterfly" in 1988, asked the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization for permission to revise the musical, which he has said is "a great opportunity to investigate a Chinese-American subject." After obtaining the go-ahead, and after meeting with Lee to discuss adapting the novel, Hwang has taken the project to a point where readings were held in New York last May and October.
Shortly thereafter, Hwang turned his attention to "Aida," which was suffering out of town. He wrote new scenes at the beginning and end of the book, to turn its tragic story into a somewhat more optimistic tale of transcendental love through the centuries. Reviewers didn't particularly love the libretto when "Aida" opened at the Palace on March 23, but the critical reaction was considerably less hostile than it had been before Hwang added his contributions.
Now with that show open and settled in for a long run, he has turned his attention back to "Flower Drum Song."
Bert Fink of the Rodgers and Hammer-stein Organization told Back Stage that the "Flower Drum Song" score (including "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "I Am Going To Like It Here," and "A Hundred Million Miracles") will remain un-changed, although there are instances-"like in the production of "The Sound of Music' that's on tour now"-where the order of songs may be altered.
No one associated with the production would predict when the show might move to New York. Also, according to a Center Theatre Group spokesperson, it is "premature" to speculate on the size of the cast.
Assuming the revamped "Flower Drum Song" does make it to Broadway, it would be the latest in a string of revivals with altered books. Current productions of "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Annie Get Your Gun" have rewritten books, and Peter Stone (who did the job on "Annie Get Your Gun") has rewritten the libretto for a production of "Finian's Rainbow" that is headed for the Main Stem. First, however, "Finian's Rainbow" will play the Ahmanason Theatre in Los Angeles, the same venue where "Flower Drum Song" will premiere.