2002 Broadway Revival
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2002 Broadway Revival
In 2001, Flower Drum Song was the first show ever to extend its scheduled run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. The following year, the production made its way to the Broadway stage at the Virginia Theatre (now August Wilson Theatre), opening on October 17, 2002, featuring a revised book by widely acclaimed, Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang. “To create something new, we must first love what is old,” claims Mei-Li in Hwang’s new adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein jewel. The production featured an all-Asian American cast, led by the Tony Award-winning Lea Salonga alongside Sandra Allen, Jose Llana, Alvin Ing and Randall Duk Kim, and was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Book of a Musical.
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In a daring 2002 revival, Flower Drum Song made its first return to Broadway in over 40 years, in a sumptuous production starring Lea Salonga. The bold new imagining featured a brand-new book adapted from the original libretto by the widely acclaimed Chinese American playwright David Henry-Hwang. The Broadway revival’s Grammy-nominated cast album features stunning, fresh orchestrations by Don Sebesky, adapted by musical director David Chase.