Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The musical, much lighter-hearted than Lee’s novel, was profitable on Broadway and was followed by a national tour. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film.
About Flower Drum Song in brief
Flower Drum Song was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The musical, much lighter-hearted than Lee’s novel, was profitable on Broadway and was followed by a national tour. After the release of the 1961 film version, the musical was rarely produced, as it presented casting issues and fears that Asian-Americans would take offense at how they are portrayed. The piece did not return to Broadway until 2002, when a version with a plot by playwright David Henry Hwang was presented after a successful Los Angeles run. It received mostly poor reviews in New York and closed after six months but had a short tour and has since been produced regionally. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film. The novel centers on Wang Chi-yang, a 63-year-old man who fled China to avoid the communists. While his sons and sister-in-law are integrating into American culture, Wang stubbornly resists assimilation. Wang also has a severe cough, which he does not wish to have cured, feeling that it gives him authority in his household. In the end, taking his son’s advice, Wang decides not to go to a herbalist to seek a remedy for his cough, but walks to a Chinese-run clinic that is beginning to accept American culture. He vows to marry May Li after she is falsely accused by the household of stealing a clock, though his father forbids it.
Wang arranges for a picture bride for his son, May Li, who has recently come to San Francisco. The two support themselves by singing flower drum songs on the street and he and May fall in love. He agrees to an affair, but eventually abandons her, and she commits suicide, and he leaves her for a younger woman, Linda Tung. Linda’s friend, seamstress Helen Chao, gets Ta drunk and seduces him. On awakening in her bed, he agrees to a relationship with Linda, who is a nightclub dancer, but later learns she has many men in her life. Linda and Wang have an affair and he abandones her, but he later learns that she is a dancer, as well. He leaves her and he marries Linda, and the two have a son, Wang Ta, with her father’s approval, with the two of them falling in love in the street. The story ends with May Li and Wang Ta falling into love and he vows to wed her after she falsely accuses her of stealing the clock, but she is accused by her father of stealing it. The family is torn; his hostility toward assimilation is isolating him from his family and he is torn between his father and his son. He decides to leave her and go to the herbalist for a cure for his coughing, but in the end he is forced to give up his dream of being a doctor. The book is about a wealthy refugee from China, who clings to traditional values in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It also tells the story of a young man who wants to adopt Western ways.
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This page is based on the article Flower Drum Song published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
