i had an only in new york experience this evening, and not even that often in new york. i've lived here nearly 17 years and this was my first.
a friend of mine works for the rogers and hammerstein organization and at 3:15 she was asked if she wanted to come to the opening night and the opening night cast party of 'flower drum song'. the show opened on broadway tonight, the first time since the original run in the early '60s with a brand new book by david henry hwang (m. butterfly). and my first opening night of a show, and my first (and probably my last) opening night party. so much fun. the show is a sentimental favorite of mine. about san francisco, near where i grew up, for one thing. also, when i was young, my mom used to buy broadway songbooks and we'd learn the songs around the piano. always loved the movie too. great score, with '100 million miracles', 'i enjoy being a girl', 'grant avenue', 'chop suey', 'love look away', and on and on. this was a fantastic production, especially musically. new arrangements, with traditional chinese sounding instruments spicing up the tremendous rodgers and hammerstein melodies (i see in the orchestra credits, bamboo flutes, erhu and pipa). fantastic singers, i mean fantastic. i'd heard of lea salonga forever, but had never seen her on stage. she is just wonderful, a fragile, sweet presence on stage with an amazing voice from the bottom to the top of a huge range. in 'love look away' the song was pitched low and a lot of it was in her chest voice, and it was just amazing what strength and truth she has in that range. the male ingenue was jose llano, who i've seen and heard before (on the town) but who, i think, will be a breakout for this role. what a gorgeous voice! linda low, the 'i enjoy being...' role was played by sandra allen, a former 'miss international' whatever that is, and a fantastic piece of work with a great, ballsy blues voice. madame liang, the best comic role, was played to the hilt by a woman named jodi long. really, everyone was fantastic. the new book puts the show all in a san francisco nightclub, so songs that are not production numbers in the movie are club numbers in this show, including chop suey, which has the chorus girls in chinese take-out containers that light up. brilliant and campy. then going to the party was a gas. people dressed to the nines, including many men in black tie and looking so fine. (thank god my hugo boss suit is still semi-cool) late in the night, crazy dancing on the floor, so that i headed home soaked. just a fun, special night for me. patrick np - toby twining - chrysalid requiem [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat]
