Original Broadway production Flower Drum Song

st. james theatre in 2006

after boston tryouts, flower drum song opened on broadway @ st. james theatre on december 1, 1958. sets designed oliver smith, costumes irene sharaff , lighting peggy clark.

c.y. lee sat in audience on first night; later stated had been nervous , bowled on positive audience reaction. show attracted considerable advance sales; when these exhausted, sales remained strong , sellouts norm. cast album sales similar previous rodgers , hammerstein hits. show received 6 tony award nominations, won 1 tony (best conductor , musical director, salvatore dell isola). overshadowed year redhead, though received better reviews flower drum song, , had considerably shorter run, dominated tony awards in musical categories. flower drum song ran 600 performances, longer run other musical 1958–1959 season – lasted longer of shows had competed asian performers.

midway through run, larry blyden left show , replaced in role of sammy fong jack soo, larry leung assuming role of frankie wing. production returned $125,000 profit backers on investment of $360,000. attendance began decline in december 1959, though continued draw @ above 70% of capacity level broadway play needed meet expenses. summer approaching, bad time attendance, decided close show, , last broadway performance given on may 7, 1960.

in autobiography, rodgers wrote of effect success of flower drum song had on state of mind:

the entire experience of working on flower drum song rewarding in many ways, not least of convinced me had overcome traces of depression. thought keep on doing doing, , saw nothing in future stop me.