Welcome to a new Musical Theatre Monday! This month, I’m paying tribute to Flower Drum Song (1958), a joyful Rodgers & Hammerstein musical that, because of limited revivals, has actually become lesser known in the decades since its debut. Why isn’t it more often performed? Well, with an all Chinese American cast, the show is difficult to stage for most high schools or community theaters, and increasing cultural concerns about jokes/depictions that might offend modern-day audiences have kept it out of the mainstream circuit — there’s only been one Broadway revival (in 2002), and it drastically rewrote the script to such an extent that a once well-crafted book musical in the sturdy R&H Golden Age tradition was no longer that.

Of course, I get it — a 1958 play written by white people about non-white people becomes a tougher sell to an increasingly non-white audience with every passing decade as social mores evolve alongside demographic changes. And although it was, for 1958, a typically sensitive Rodgers & Hammerstein show with a familiar message of community and mutual respect that would have been considered socially progressive for the time — and, as far as 1950s depictions of Asian Americans go, this is definitely kind, based on a book by a Chinese American author — its perspective is inherently more flattering to the Americanized characters than the Chinese, and that’s, frankly, a reversal of what we’d expect today of a show about cultural assimilation. In that regard, it’s fighting an uphill battle, and after the Civil Rights movement of the mid-1960s, it was always fated to become more rapidly, obviously “dated” (that is, to become a more specific reflection of the exact moment in time in which it was first produced).

And yet, if one is willing to make that leap in time — to accept that a 1958 play is written with 1958 sensibilities and for an audience of Americans from 1958, bracing for whatever that means — I think it not only may be less “dated” than you’d expect, it would also reveal itself to be a show rich in charm, with a nuanced score that reflects, sonically, the cultural distinctions between San Franciscans of Chinese descent and recently arrived Chinese immigrants — see: “I Enjoy Being A Girl” vs. “I Am Going To Like It Here” or “A Hundred Million Miracles” vs. “Chop Suey.” And more than that, with an all-Chinese cast, it’s a rare opportunity (still) for Chinese American actors to play a variety of different roles — from the assured Linda Low to the demure Mei Li — all of which actually aim to reflect, in some degree, specifics related to their communities. In fact, the original production made a Broadway star of Pat Suzuki (see above) — someone who should have had a better career but for a lack of roles elsewhere. These opportunities maintain value even today — it’s a venue for performers who have limited options — and this is certainly evident as well in the talent-filled 1961 film adaptation starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, and Jack Soo — which keeps most of the songs, but tweaks their order in a way that I’m not sure is an improvement over the original Broadway rundown.

To that point, the simple fact is — this is an integrated book musical by the duo who had pioneered the form 15 years prior, so tinkering with its text, and these songs’ placement in the text, has never had much success, either in the 1961 film or that aforementioned 2002 revival, where the story was heavily altered. Accordingly, I maintain that the best version of Flower Drum Song, for what it is, is the 1958 original — and unfortunately, that’s not performed anymore. However, I have a treat — for subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, non-commercial interest. It’s access to an untracked audio — along with the video from which it’s ripped — of a 2002 production by the Army Community Theatre from Honolulu that uses the original book (and may have been one of the last to do so). It’s not a Broadway-caliber performance, but it’s pretty good. And it’s your chance to understand what the original Flower Drum Song would have been like — and why, by the standards of 1958, it’s a charming show that deserves more attention. I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the audio, sung by the excellent Nicole Sullivan; the score’s biggest hit — the beautiful “Love, Look Away.”

Come back next month for another musical gem! And stay tuned soon for Parks And Rec!