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Welcome to your source for information of special interest to our Theatricals Customers. You may choose from any of the articles to the right: Two Classics, Four Musicals ANNIE GET YOUR GUN received her makeover in 1999, featuring a cleverly revised book by Tony winner Peter Stone. With Broadway stalwart Bernadette Peters stepping into the boots of Ethel Merman to create an indelible performance, the new production was a rip-roarin' hit. While critics scrambled for superlatives and audiences threw their hats in the air, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN went on to win the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and earned the irrepressible Ms. Peters a Tony as well. FLOWER DRUM SONG, with a new book by Tony winner David Henry Hwang, premiered at the esteemed Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in the fall of 2001. On a wave of ecstatic reviews, it arrived on Broadway in the fall of 2002 starring Tony award winner Lea Salonga. ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and FLOWER DRUM SONG have long shared a predicament of perception, both having been charged with featuring cultural stereotypes. Consequently, Stone and Hwang shared the challenge of acknowledging contemporary sensibilities while honoring the essential spirit of the authors' original intentions. Both writers succeeded admirably.
The story of Annie Oakley's rise from rural ragamuffin to world-famous sharpshooter has been refashioned by Stone as a Wild West Show-within-a-show enacted by Buffalo Bill and his wily troupe. This inventive concept propels the narrative of Annie's budding romance with ace marksman and rival, Frank Butler, while heightening the showbiz splendor for which this beloved musical has always been known. It is worth noting that ANNIE GET YOUR GUN was revised once before, by Irving Berlin himself for a 1966 Broadway production. He contributed one of his famous "double songs," the infectious "An Old Fashioned Wedding," and eliminated two characters and their songs. It is this version that has been available for production ever since. In his adaptation, Stone has brought back those two characters Dolly Tate's kid sister, Winnie, and her boyfriend, Tommy and reinstated their two delightful duets, "I'll Share it All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?"What hasn't changed is the dynamic force of Irving Berlin's invigorating score. From that ultimate theatrical anthem, "There's No Business Like Show Business," to the rapturous "I Got Lost In His Arms," the score still celebrates romance ["The Girl That I Marry," "Moonshine Lullaby," "My Defenses are Down," "They Say It's Wonderful"]; good old American pluck ["You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," "I'm a Bad, Bad Man," "I Got the Sun in the Morning"], and the battle of the sexes ["Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)," "An Old Fashioned Wedding"]. It is hard to think of another musical with such an abundance of hit songs.
Hwang's re-imagining of FLOWER DRUM SONG met with similar kudos. "A work of bravery and intelligence and real faith in the possibilities of musical theater," proclaimed Time Magazine. WNBC-TV agreed: "The updated version is vibrant, charming and has a lot to say about the Asian-American experience." Time Out New York felt that "This little-performed 1958 musical shines in this jubilant, top-to-bottom revision. David Henry Hwang's wised-up book adds more humor and political savy."
"To create something new, you must first love what is old," claims Mei-Li in Hwang's adaptation. The sentiment is obviously shared by the author himself, who has created something dazzlingly new while honoring the original material. The character of Mei-Li originally landed in San Francisco's Chinatown as a mail-order bride. In Hwang's version, she has fled Mao's communist China after the murder of her father, a Chinese opera impresario. (Mei-Li's journey to the U.S.A., staged in the highly stylized tradition of Chinese theater, is a highlight of Hwang's re-write.) She is befriended by her father's colleague who is struggling to keep the Chinese opera tradition alive in 1950s San Francisco despite his son's determination to turn the old opera house into a nightclub. The score, by turns lushly romantic and showbiz-brassy, has been largely retained in Hwang's version, with only "The Other Generation" from the original having been dropped. "My Best Love," a poignant ballad cut from the original, has been happily reinstated. As in 1958, the critics waxed poetic about the score.
Mei-Li's gradual assimilation is informed by her realization that the old and new can coexist when there is respect for both. It is in that spirit that The R&H Theatre Library will now make available both the old and new versions of both musicals. The revised version of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN is currently available for production and the new FLOWER DRUM SONG will be available in the fall of 2003. As always, we are happy to provide perusal materials. |
"Despite fears of heavy-handed political correctness," noted Newsday of the revised ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, "the fixes are ingenious and the show's a dream" Echoed Time Magazine, "The book has been updated in ways that pass p.c. muster without losing all the fun."
"Bulls-eye!" exclaimed Time Magazine, hailing Stone's adaptation "a brand-new delight." Time Out New York also praised the revision as "A reconception of the most refreshing order&spirited but respectful." Newsday proclaimed the new production "a dream&romantic and thoroughly enchanting!" The New York Post found it to be "the very definition of glorious Broadway entertainment," with The New York Times summing it up in just one word: "Glorious!" And, as always, praise for the timeless Berlin score was plentiful. "A knockout!" (USA Today). "Irresistible!" (New York Daily News). "Astonishing!" (Associated Press). "Splendiferous!" (Billboard).
FLOWER DRUM SONG originally opened on Broadway in 1958, the first Broadway musical to illuminate the Asian-American experience. Forty-five years later, it remains the only musical to have done so.
"Pure honey for the ears," opined Time Out New York. The Newark Star-Ledger chimed in with, "Upbeat songs like the jaunty Grant Avenue' and lyrical ballads like the luminous You Are Beautiful,' all dolled up with smart new arrangements, are characteristic of Rodgers and Hammerstein's melodious, warm-hearted style." Newsday cheered, "Rodgers and Hammerstein's songs are as gorgeous as ever." The New York Daily News found the score "spicy and entertaining," and said that Tony winner Don Sebesky's new orchestrations "capture the great score sharply and wittily."