When the 5th Avenue Theatre's Artistic Director David Armstrong saw the newly revised "Flower Drum Song" in New York, he immediately wanted it to play Seattle. Armstrong thought the show's story, with a new and stronger emphasis on the Chinese immigrant experience, would appeal to Seattle's own diverse population of newly arrived Asian immigrants, and those whose families have been here for generations.
The revival of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's 1958 musical was the dream of Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang.
"As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, all the images that I'd see of Chinese-Americans would be inhuman - either inhumanly bad villains or inhumanly good heroes, like Charlie Chan. The first time I saw the movie of "Flower Drum Song," I was pleasantly surprised by the characters," said Hwang during a recent lecture.
The 1961 movie version of the musical showed young Chinese Americans who spoke English without an accent (although many were played by Japanese Americans like actor Pat Suzuki). And, both on stage and screen, the musical was the only major American theatrical work to use an all-Asian cast for the next several decades.
Hwang then decided to approach the Rodgers & Ham-merstein Organization, which controls all rights to the musicals, about reviving it. "There's been a number of musicals which have been about Asians in Asia, but Rodgers and Hammerstein's take remains unique," he said.
Surprisingly, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization agreed to Hwang's request to rewrite the musical. "The organization has a reputation of not wanting to change anything. I didn't know that. I went to them and asked them if I could change everything," said Hwang, who found the organization was fully supportive of his efforts.
As the first Chinese-American to win a Tony award, Hwang's plays have always dealt with the issues of cultural myths built around Asians by American theater and movies. He used many of his own experiences and interests in reworking "Flower Drum Song" for a Broadway revival.
Hwang's first play,"FOB," won an Obie Award in 1980 for the best new play of the season produced off-Broadway in New York. "FOB" stood for "Fresh Off the Boat" and dealt with the cultural clashes between a Chinese immigrant and some Chinese-American students living in Los Angeles. The phrase returns in Hwang's reworking of "Flower Drum Song. The "picture bride" Mei-li of original has now become a refugee from Communist China, confused about how to adapt to a new life in California and the attitudes of very American characters like the hero, Wang Ta.
"The original novel by C. Y. Lee was more bittersweet in tone, and we tried to get back to that," said Hwang. "Rodgers and Hammerstein had added the picture bride idea and a nightclub to the plot. We kept the nightclub idea and turned it into part of the "chop suey" circuit of that time."
This circuit of nightclubs featured Chinese actors and singers, usually performing for tourists in Chinatowns around the country. In the 1950s, Hwang pointed out, any Chinese American with a yearning to work on stage probably ended up in this circuit.
Hwang discovered that he needed a little musical help. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization put Hwang in touch with director and choreographer Robert Longbottom and musical director David Chase.
"They essentially gave me a crash course in creating a musical," said Hwang.
For example, "all the songs are the original songs. Each song has its own DNA, and I learned that you had to present the song in the way that the composers wanted it," Hwang said.
One remarkable aspect of Hwang's script is how all the songs still seem to spring naturally from the character's emotional dilemmas. Even the once too sweet "One Hundred Million Miracles" gets a dark and stirring dramatic outing in the prologue of the play, becoming an anthem for those struggling to escape persecution in 1950s Communist China and embark on a new life in the United States.
Chase also updated the orchestral arrangements of the music.
"We used more of the musical language of that period," said Hwang. "Musical theater tends to be about 20 years behind the trend." So even though Rodgers and Hammerstein were writing music in the late 1950s, their "modern" sound was more in the style of the late 1930s or 1940s. "David added a California 'surf music' influence in some of the arrangements."
Hwang had a little fun playing up the stereotypes of his childhood.
"I think we have enough distance from some of the stereotypes that were common then, that we can set them up as a joke and laugh at them," he said.
While none of the original book has survived Hwang never wanted to lose the musical soul of what Rodgers and Hammerstein created - all of their songs (including one cut out of the movie version) are sung in the new production.
As with any good musical, the romantic conflicts end up straightened out in time for a spectacular on-stage wedding scene. But in this wedding the bride wears red, the color of joy in Chinese culture, and everyone speaks about their original birthplaces as a poignant reminder of how "to be an American" means to be descended from many countries and many cultures.
Judging from the standing ovation at the end of opening night Hwang proved that you can make something new and wonderful out of honoring something old.
"Flower Drum Song" continues at the 5th Avenue Theater through October 26. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster outlets, the 5th Avenue Box Office, 1308 5th Avenue, or by calling 292-ARTS.
