Theater News

Love, Look Away: Broadway’s Flower Drum Song to Close March 16

José Llana and Lea Salongain Flower Drum Song(Photo © Joan Marcus)
José Llana and Lea Salonga
in Flower Drum Song
(Photo © Joan Marcus)

The Broadway production of , a heavily revised version of the 1958 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical, has announced that it will close on March 16, having played 26 previews and 172 regular performances.

Featuring such songs as “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” “Love, Look Away,” and “A Hundred Million Miracles,” Flower Drum Song is based on the novel by C. Y. Lee, with a new libretto by David Henry Hwang (Aida, M. Butterfly), replacing the original book by Hammerstein and Joseph Fields. The show tells the story of a young woman who flees Communist China to find a new life (and love) in San Francisco in the middle of the twentieth century. The show stars Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables), José Llana (Rent, The King and I), Randall Duk Kim (Golden Child, The King and I), Jodi Long (Getting Away With Murder, Loose Ends), and Sandra Allen (Sunset Blvd.).

The production was directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Side Show), and features musical adaptation and supervision by David Chase (Side Show), scenic designs by Robin Wagner (The Producers, Side Show), costume designs by Gregg Barnes (Side Show, Radio City Christmas Spectacular), and lighting designs by Natasha Katz (Sweet Smell of Success, Aida). A national tour of the show is scheduled to begin in Dallas in September, with an international tour to follow in 2004.

In his review of the production, TheaterMania’s David Finkle wrote, “The original, 1958 production of Flower Drum Song was concerned thematically with respect for tradition. Yet, someone watching the new, improved (?) version now on Broadway might wonder what manner of respect for tradition was in the minds of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization administrators when they took the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II-Joseph Fields show and turned it over to David Henry Hwang for a libretto overhaul.”

Flower Drum Song is playing on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre (245 W. 52nd Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue). Tickets are available by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200.