Reviews for Flower Drum Song

The average rating for Flower Drum Song based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-08 00:00:00 Adam Howard Perhaps this is not Hwang's finest play, though it reflects his career-long interest in Eastern/Western cultural conflict and talent for punchy dialogue. Having never read the book nor seen any of the original Rodgers and Hammerstein productions, I cannot comment on the ways the playwright has "modernized" the plot and characters and attempted to downplay the degrading stereotypes that come through in the music. (The Rodgers and Hammerstein estates granted Hwang permission to alter the script, but not the songs.) Even so, I enjoyed the piece as a standalone work that insists upon treating its Chinese/Chinese American characters as full, if not terribly memorable, human beings.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-06 00:00:00 Henry Rosenfeld I went into this totally blind, having only heard some of the score before, and I came out loving that magical, underappreciated score and with an appreciation for David Henry Hwang's book that is classic musical theatre in every way with a sweet as pie ending. I read in conjunction with the really lovely revival cast recording and the whole thing was a treat.