Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Cut "Chop Suey"? | |
| Posted by: SRMHAYES 09:55 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - BruceinIthaca 09:51 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| True that. I defer. And I LOVE that number! Did you know that George Chakiris (pre- "WSS") is one of the dancers in that number in the film version? | |
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| re: Cut "Chop Suey"? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 04:21 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - SRMHAYES 09:55 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| "Did you know that George Chakiris (pre- 'WSS') is one of the dancers in that number in the film version?" I don't believe that's correct. Chakiris is an ensemble dancer in several movies of the mid-1950s (including the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"number in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES), but I'm pretty sure he's not in FLOWER DRUM SONG, which was actually released the same year as WEST SIDE STORY (1961). |
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| re: Cut "Chop Suey"? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 10:01 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - SRMHAYES 09:55 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Anything can get cut these days, it seems. "The Younger Generation" disappeared from the Broadway revival, which I thought was a shame. But of course, Flower Drum Song gets done so frequently, right?? (insert ironic emoji) |
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| re: Cut "Chop Suey"? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:21 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - Chromolume 10:01 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Forgive me - the song title is "The OTHER Generation." Hadn't had my coffee yet when I posted earlier...;-) | |
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| re: Cut "Chop Suey"? | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:20 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - Chromolume 10:01 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I barely recall the revisal, other than Salonga, who worked hard. I grew up in love with the score, and wanted desperately to love what Hwang did with the material. I don't think it all quite landed -- too many adjustments to a recipe with era-specific character problems baked in, as it were (attached to songs that couldn't be shoehorned as easily as one hoped). But it was a very solid attempt to find a way to make a moving immigrant narrative work. I remember trying to get people to go and judge for themselves. I saw a fairly late preview and the audience was cruel at intermission, wanting "their old FLOWER DRUM SONG back." Of course, that was a western, white audience who wanted it restored. | |
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| Don't chop "Chop Suey"! | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 11:06 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 11:04 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Cut "Chop Suey"? - Delvino 10:20 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| For the record, I've always loved the original ''Flower Drum Song'' AND David Henry Hwang's revisal. I know many folks consider it second-tier Rodgers & Hammerstein, but for my money, it's got a terrific score: ''You Are Beautiful,'' ''A Hundred Million Miracles,'' ''I Enjoy Being a Girl,'' ''Grant Avenue,'' and one of their best ballads, ''Love, Look Away.'' Many of today's musicals (to me) don't have a score that could hold a candle to those tunes. And ''Chop Suey'' is a delightful metaphor for the mix of the East and West; it's a dish that was created in America, not China. Moreover, ''Flower Drum Song'' always has had a soft spot in my heart. If you see Asians in a Broadway musical, it's as exotics and foreigners who speak funny: ''The King and I,'' ''Miss Saigon,'' etc. As an Asian-American, it made me proud to see us depicted as Americans in the good ol' USA. |
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| re: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 11:02 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - WaymanWong 11:04 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I too love the score, but I don't think the plot stands the test of time. Perhaps a perfect choice for Encores. | |
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| Who were you proud of? | |
| Posted by: MarjorieMae 12:59 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - WaymanWong 11:04 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Larry Blyden or Juanita Hall?😉 | |
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| re: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:32 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - WaymanWong 11:04 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Not to mention "Sunday", another wonderful up-tempo, cheery song not always cited in the R&H output. "Don't Marry Me" and " I Am Going to Like It Here" are enjoyable as well. I agree that it's a terrific score, and Pat Suzuki on the OCR sounds like an American girl with a great big voice singing show-stopping tunes. Miyoshi Umeki's character, being an immigrant to the US, sounds different than the others in the cast, and that's intentional, as the others are as American as Curley and the folks from "Oklahoma!" or "Carousel". | |
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| "I Am Going to Like it Here" | |
| Posted by: Delvino 01:50 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - PlayWiz 11:32 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| When I was a kid, it was my favorite song from the show, and its performance in the film (which came out, and I saw in the theater) just captivated me, mysteriously. It's still one of Rodgers most beautiful and simple melodies. | |
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| re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 04:48 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: "I Am Going to Like it Here" - Delvino 01:50 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| It was my favorite song in the show too, as a kid, and it still is. I think it's one of the most extraordinary songs ever written for Broadway, with its gorgeous melody, ever gentle but gaining surprising emotional power by the end. I also love the lyric, the way the second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and third lines of the next. Hammerstein patterned it on an east Asian verse form whose name I can never remember--but AlanScott can tell you! : ) | |
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| re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:38 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" - keikekaze 04:48 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I'm not AlanScott (nor have his encyclopedic knowledge), but Hammerstein based it on a pantoum, derived from pantun, a Malay verse form. It involves interwoven quatrains, and ''I Am Going to Like It Here'' is just another one of ''Flower Drum's'' enchanting songs. |
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| re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" | |
| Posted by: keikekaze 04:37 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" - WaymanWong 12:38 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Yes, thank you, Wayman--"pantoum" is the word I was looking for. | |
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| re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 12:48 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "I Am Going to Like it Here" - WaymanWong 12:38 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I, like others, have always found it haunting--I remember my mom taking me to the movie when I was a child at the Lake Theatre in Oak Park, IL, and loving the whole show, but the simplicity of the song was so appealing to a child. My mother had grown up with the wife of the advance man for the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization, so when a touring company of one of their shows (or one the organization had produced) came through Chicago, my parents, who at the time were a young couple, poor as church mice, got comps--allowing them to see South Pacific, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music, among others. And they somehow also saw My Fair Lady--as my mother remembered Anne Rogers, who I later saw as Lucille in the tour of No, No, Nanette. Memories. | |
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| re: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:24 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - WaymanWong 11:04 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| and one of their best ballads, ''Love, Look Away.'' Agreed. ;-) |
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| My very favorite R & H score... | |
| Posted by: HadriansMall 01:17 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Don't chop "Chop Suey"! - Chromolume 11:24 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Not their best show perhaps, but definitely the score I enjoy listening to the most | |
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| re: My very favorite R & H score... | |
| Last Edit: bmc 06:17 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| Posted by: bmc 06:13 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: My very favorite R & H score... - HadriansMall 01:17 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I think it was Ethan Mordenn who pointed out in his book on R&H how often children are featured in their show.(also death) OKLAHOMA! ME AND JULIET have no kids PIPE DREAM has a couple, but they feature prominently in the other shows, including FDS/. They also have songs that are very'accesible for youngsters. As a child, FDS was on of my faves, especially "Chop SUEY, which is an intentionally Goofy Song. Love Look Away was a little over my head, but in his theater survey Alan Lerner singled it out as one of his favorites, wondering why it hadn't been a bigger hit. I think you hear it more frequently now a days | |
| Link | https://`` |
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| re: My very favorite R & H score... | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:08 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: My very favorite R & H score... - bmc 06:13 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I have seen productions of OKLAHOMA! that included kids as part of the ensemble for the big crowd scenes, like the box social and the wedding. I guess the script doesn't expressly call for it, but I suppose it wouldn't be usual, especially for a community that is partly made up of farmers, to see some kids running around at any big social event. | |
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