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Flower Drum Song is a 1961 American musical film directed by Henry Koster, adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, in turn based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author Chin Yang Lee.
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. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the West End and on tour. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film.
- Chin Yang Lee
- 1957
The original Broadway production of "Flower Drum Song" opened at the Saint James Theater on December 1, 1958, ran for 600 performances and was nominated for the 1959 Tony Award (New York City) for the Best Musical. Miyoshi Umeki and Juanita Hall reprise their stage roles in the movie.
After a one-month out-of-town tryout at Boston’s Shubert Theatre, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song premiered the first primarily Asian American cast to ever perform in a Broadway musical, including Pat Suzuki, Miyoshi Umeki, Jose Ahumada, Fumi Akimoto, Paula Chin and many others.
Flower Drum Song Synopsis. 2002 Broadway Revival Version. Stills from the 1958 Original Broadway Production. ACT ONE. In a Prologue, Mei-Li begins a flower drum song she has learned from her father ( “A Hundred Million Miracles” ), which becomes the theme as she begins her own journey to the West.
Filmed entirely on studio sets, Flower Drum Song bursts with bright colors and the cast provides plenty of high energy. Nancy Kwan may not sing her songs (her vocals are dubbed by B.J. Baker), but she dances up a storm.
Based on the musical Flower Drum Song , music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields (New York, 1 Dec 1958), which was based on the novel of the same name by C. Y. Lee (New York, 1957).
