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Flower Drum Song

Tony Award-winner LEA SALONGA stars in the production as Mei-Li, a young girl from Communist China who finds her way to San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s. Salonga won a 1991 Tony Award for her performance as Kim in Miss Saigon. Other credits include They're Playing Our Song (Sonia), Les Miserables (Eponine), Grease (Sandy), Into the Woods (The Witch), My Fair Lady (Eliza), The Fantasticks (Luisa), Paper Moon (Addie), The Bad Seed (Rhoda), The Sound of Music (Brigitta), Annie (Annie). Film: Aladdin (singing voice of Jasmine), Mulan (singing voice of Mulan). Television: "Redwood Curtain, (Geri), "As the World Turns" (Lien Hughes). Recordings: Miss Saigon (original London cast recording), The King and I, Lea Salonga, The Nutcracker, Lea...In Love, By Heart, The Christmas Album. Concerts: Lea...LIVE!, Songs from the Screen, A Miss Called Lea, Russell Watson: The Voice, Hey, Mr. Producer!, Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert.

David Henry Hwang's book is entirely new. Though he retains some of the characters and plot elements from the original Broadway show, Hwang has returned to the themes of C.Y. Lee's original novel - cultural assimilation, the relationship between generations and the struggle to become authentically American without abandoning traditions.

In the new FLOWER DRUM SONG, Mei-Li (Lea Salonga), the daughter of a Chinese opera master, travels to San Francisco as the dying wish of her father. In Chinatown, she meets Master Wang, a colleague of her father's, and Wang's American-born son, Ta, at their struggling opera house, which over his father's objections, Ta transforms into a swinging nightclub, Club Chop Suey. As Mei-Li's own identity is in transition, she witnesses the delicate balancing act in her new community between the older generation's struggle to hold on to traditional beliefs and the younger generation's desire to assimilate. She also finds herself falling in love.

JOSE LLANA (The King and I, Martin Guerre, Rent) will play Ta, a role he played in the Mark Taper Forum production. Additional casting for FLOWER DRUM SONG will be announced shortly.

The original Broadway production of FLOWER DRUM SONG opened December 1, 1958 at the St. James Theatre and played for 600 performances. A successful film version was released in 1961. FLOWER DRUM SONG includes such classic numbers as "A Hundred Million Miracles," "I Enjoy Being a Girl," "Grant Avenue" and "Love, Look Away."

When it opened last year at the Mark Taper Forum, Variety called the new production of FLOWER DRUM SONG, "Compelling! An artistic success, revealing a revitalized score and a dramatic complexion that's far richer than the original." The Los Angeles Times named FLOWER DRUM SONG "One of the Year's 10 Best! FLOWER DRUM SONG succeeds. Raffishly entertaining." Time Magazine describes FLOWER DRUM SONG as "Funny and clever! It even jerks a tear or two. Broadway, get ready!"

FLOWER DRUM SONG is being presented in association with Robert G. Bartner, Ernest Escaler and Stephanie McClelland.

Group sales for FLOWER DRUM SONG are currently available by calling 212-398-8383.