The Tony-winning playwright originally reimagined the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical for a short-lived 2002 Broadway revival.
Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang will again revise the book to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, this time for a new staging at Los Angeles' East West Players. The revival is set to perform at the California theatre May 28-June 21, 2026. Lily Tung Crystal will direct, with opening night set for May 31.
The original version of the musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1958, is not exactly a shining example of authentic depictions of Asian American communities, centering on a Bay Area group of Chinese immigrants torn between their traditional values and American assimilation. Hwang first revised the title for a 2002 Broadway revival, describing it as essentially a new musical with the same songs—including "A Hundred Million Miracles," "I Enjoy Being a Girl," and "Love, Look Away." The new version, which retained the setting and some of the character names but little else from the original book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields from a novel by C.Y. Lee, played just a brief run on Broadway of 169 performances. Hwang's plot follows a young Chinese opera star fleeing communism, who finds herself swept away by nightclub culture in America. It's not clear what further revisions are expected for the upcoming staging.