To celebrate my wife’s birthday, we took a day trip down to Los Angeles. She has always been a big Rodgers and Hammerstein fan, but many of the lesser-known musicals are rarely on stage.
There are a few reasons for this. The key issue in many cases is the book. (Or, if you are an old-school classical musician, the libretto…)
The problems tend to fall into two categories. First is simply that many librettos were written - and indeed exist - as a mere vehicle for the songs. This is true of some operas as well - Cosi Fan Tutte has to be one of the silliest (and sexist) things ever written, but Mozart’s dazzling music means opera companies find ways of putting it on stage. For many older musicals, a story of the usual comedy sort is cobbled together: girl and guy meet cute, fall in love, are separated by misunderstanding, but overcome the obstacles to be together. Repeat as many times as you need.
The other flaw, though, is a bit harder to overcome. The societal attitudes have changed since many of these works were written, and elements haven’t aged well. This is particularly the case with musicals written by white people about brown people. Porgy and Bess may have been revolutionary in casting African Americans at the time, but some stereotypes are winceworthy now.
The same thing is the case with Flower Drum Song. At the time, writing a musical entirely about Chinese immigrants was bold and even progressive. But at the same time, story elements contain stereotypes about “exotic” foreigners that are dated or worse.
There have been various revisions made to the script by different editors over time, ranging from slight adjustments to complete rewrites of the story.
Going into this one, I had never seen the play or movie. My experience was limited to playing a Rodgers and Hammerstein song medley - pops concerts often use these sorts of things as crowd-pleasers. Oh, and also, my wife dances around the house singing Broadway tunes, so I was plenty familiar with “I Enjoying Being a Girl.”
But other than that, no expectations.
East West Players is the longest-running Asian-American theater in the US, and has a history of putting a new spin on old classics. A couple years ago, for example, we went and saw their production of Pacific Overtures. That is another story that certainly feels different as interpreted by Asian-Americans.
For this production, David Henry Hwang, who previously adapted this musical 20ish years ago, wrote a new version of the script.
After we watched it, my wife pulled up an online summary of the original, and we compared the changes. They were pretty extensive. It isn’t exactly a completely different story, but it isn’t the same either. Considering that the original musical is based on a book by a Chinese-American author, and takes considerable liberties with that plot, I can’t really complain. Essentially, there are three different works, with different central ideas to convey.
I won’t recount the plot of either of the originals - you can check out the Wikipedia summaries if you want.
The version we saw mostly matches the 2002 Hwang revision, but with some updates.
I think the primary revision is the elimination of the “mail order bride” and arranged marriage as the center of the Ta and Mei-Li romance. (Which, by the way, isn’t the center of the original book.) I can see why this was done. One of the unfair ways white people have stereotyped “exotic” cultures has been to focus on arranged marriages. Perhaps forgetting that marriage for love and personal fulfillment is a relatively recent development in white culture as well.
[For that matter, I would wager there are more arranged marriages among fundamentalist white people here in the US than among immigrants. You would be surprised.]
There are also omitted characters (the father is barely on stage at all), and added characters (Harvard, kind of a mashup of the comedian friend and the seamstress - and a hilarious and endearing tribute to queer theater people), and a lot less in the way of plot complexity. (The whole voidable marriage contract feels a lot more Anthony Trollope than music theater, honestly.)
What is retained in the new version is the question of assimilation. What does it mean to be culturally Chinese? What does it mean to be an American?
This plays out, not among racist white people like Stephen Miller, for whom white skin is what it means to be American, but among the Chinese-American population in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
There is the difference between those “just off the boat” and those who have been in America for decades. And between the first generation immigrants and their American-born children.
Inseparable from this question is how one assimilates. Does this mean trying to “act white” and abandoning one’s culture? Does it mean playing up stereotypes to make money from white audiences?
Who is an American anyway?
I was raised in a mostly minority neighborhood, with a lot of immigrants, documented and undocumented. For me, America feels like diversity. It is an idea, not an ethnicity.
This clearly puts me at odds with a lot of white Americans these days, unfortunately. Including extended family.
It was refreshing to see performances like this, where it is asserted - quite correctly - that Asian-Americans are as American as any other. At the end of the play, each actor told where they were born: most were born here in the US, with a few born overseas. But Americans one and all.
East West is a professional company, and its productions are always well performed. This was no exception, with signing, dancing, and acting that was everything it should have been. There also were an absurd number of costume changes, with everything from traditional Chinese opera to burlesque.
Sets were relatively modest, probably related to the limited infrastructure for the theater - I don’t think it had a full fly far enough forward to drop stuff where they might have wanted, and there was no traditional curtain. The orchestra was in the back of the stage, and appeared visible for some of the scenes, which was a nice touch.
I had a good time, but I suspect that those who grew up on the movie might take issue with the significant plot changes. It is a different story with the same songs, and how you feel about that may vary.
As an assertion of American identity for immigrants, as an exploration of generational differences, as a look at the immigrant experience from inside - it succeeds well in my opinion.
I believe this show runs through the end of the month, so if you are in the Los Angeles area, you might check it out. (And get some delicious food while you are in Little Tokyo.)
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