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Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by David Henry Hwang
Based on the original book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields, the novel by C.Y. Lee
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Show History
“To create something new,” says a character in David Henry Hwang's script for FLOWER DRUM SONG, “we must first love what is old.” For Mr. Hwang, this is the guiding philosophy
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Articles & Interviews
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Critic Quotes
"Musically fabulous...FLOWER DRUM SONG is rich Rodgers & Hammerstein, dealing with the subject they do best: cultures at odds."
The New York Times, 2001
"Rodgers has composed one of his more persuasive scores, and Hammerstein has written lyrics that are moody and amusing...a delightùeverything about it is just right."
New York Daily Mirror, 1958
"Another notable work by the outstanding craftsmen of our musical theatre...a lovely show, an outstanding one in theme and treatment."
New York Daily Mirror, 1958
"FLOWER DRUM SONG continues to live and breathe, and sing, as joyously as it did three and a half decades in the past...Revolutionary for its time, it continues to be so in ours."
Inside Asian America, 1996
Musical Numbers
A Hundred Million Miracles (Mei-Li and Ensemble)
resources/Audios/41224_1353_01.mp3
A Hundred Million Miracles (Mei-Li and Ensemble)
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 1. A Hundred Million Miracles (Mei-Li and Ensemble)
2. I Am Going To Like It Here (Mei-Li)
3. Jazz Bit (Showgirls and Linda)
4. I Enjoy Being A Girl (Linda and Ensemble)
5. You Are Beautiful (Ta and Mei-Li)
6. Grant Avenue (Madame Liang, Linda, Harvard, Ta, Chin, Mei-Li, Wang and Ensemble)
7. Sunday (Ta and Mei-Li)
 8. I Enjoy Being A Girl (Reprise) (Ta and Mei-Li)
9. Fan Tan Fannie (Linda and Ensemble)
10. Gliding Through My Memoree (Wang and Ensemble)
11. A Hundred Million Miracles (Reprise) (Wang and Ensemble)
12. Chop Suey (Wang, Madame Liang and Ensemble)
13. My Best Love (Chin)
14. I Am Going To Like It Here (Reprise) (Chin)
15. Don't Marry Me (Madame Liang and Wang)
16. Love, Look Away (Mei-Li)
17. You Are Beautiful (Reprise) (Mei-Li)
18. Like a God (Ta)
19. A Hundred Million Miracles (Reprise) (Mei-Li, Ta and Ensemble)
Discography
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Flower Drum Song [2002 Broadway Revival Cast]
Label: Drg Records
Release date: January 1, 2003
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Rental Materials
| Rehearsal Set (22 Books, 1 Logo CD) |
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20 Libretto/Vocal Books
| 1 Logo CD
| 2 Piano Conductor Scores
| | | | Orchestration Package (20 Books) |
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1 Piano Conductor Scores
| 1 REED I (see note below)
| 1 REED II (Flute, Clarinet & Alto Sax)
| 1 REED III (Oboe, English Horn, Flute, Clarinet & Tenor Sax)
| 1 REED IV (Bass Clarinet, Bassoon & Baritone Sax)
| 1 HORN
| 1 TRUMPET I (Doubling Flugelhorn)
| 1 TRUMPET II (Doubling Flugelhorn)
| 1 TROMBONE (Doubling Bass Trombone)
| 1 GUITAR (Acoustic, Archtop, Electric, Banjo, Ukulele, Mandolin and Pipa)
| 1 KEYBOARD (see Keyboard Book for breakdown)
| 1 HARP
| 1 DRUMS
| 2 PERCUSSION (see note below)
| 1 VIOLIN I (Doubling Violin)
| 1 VIOLIN II
| 1 VIOLA (Doubling Violin)
| 1 CELLO (Doubling Ehru)
| 1 BASS
| | | | Libretto/Vocal Books 10 p |
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10 Libretto/Vocal Books
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Writer's Notes
2001, David Henry Hwang, Playbill interview with Andrew Gans“When I was a kid, I generally had this policy of avoiding plays or movies or TV shows with Asians because they always made me feel kind of icky, but FLOWER DRUM SONG was an exception in the sense that you had an actual love story between an Asian man and an Asian woman, which you still don't see much of today. You had a younger generation that acted pretty much American, and you had this great score and these wonderful dance numbers. And, it also established a generation of Asian stars for my parents—that whole era—and, for me, it was one of the few things I saw on television as a kid that I could at all relate to. So, it actually had a lot of meaning to me as a kid.I think it was incredibly brave of [Rodgers and Hammerstein to write the show], and it was incredibly brave of them also to do it with an all-Asian cast. I think this probably relates to—this is just my own theory—Hammerstein with CARMEN JONES and having those sorts of breakthroughs. I think, probably, it was part of their principles or their agenda to be able to present this other minority group as being Americans like everybody else. Over the years, that concept of what it means to be American like everybody else has sort of dated a bit. You can quibble whether this part of the original FLOWER DRUM SONG is authentic or not, [but] I think it was authentically felt, and I think their intentions were pretty radical. [The production is being billed as a new musical.] If you ask me, I think the best word for it is a remake. It's most analogous to "Ocean's Eleven" or David Cronenberg's "The Fly," where you take something that existed before and you build a new piece on it. Now does that make it a new musical? I don't know; that's up to producers and critics and other people to decide. It doesn't fit neatly into other traditional categories.”
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