Once On This Island

Promises, Promises, The Fantasticks and Once on this Island fall into the category of romances with pretty songs and ugly stories. Ti Moune's story is told with such glee that it's easy to forget it's a tragedy. The Gods attempts to grant her wishes are comically inept and the gentleman she wants is a garbage person. They are less Romeo and Juliet than Jason and Medea. Still "Mama Will Provide" is a fabulous song.

Gee I really should have saved this series till Valentine's Day. I'll get to Christmas shows eventually.

Flower Drum Song v.2

In 2002 Flower Drum Song was revived on Broadway with a new book. Mei Lei had a tragic backstory, Linda had a sassy gay assistant, and the roles of showman and conservative father were combined into that of the conflicted theater/club owner. The show received mixed reviews but received a stellar cast album and opportunities for regional licensing.

DAVID HENRY HWANG: "The show, which originally arrived on Broadway in 1958, had fallen off the cultural radar, regarded as quaint, patronizing and old-fashioned. But I had always admired Rodgers and Hammerstein's ambition to write a musical about America through the eyes of Asians, who even today tend to be regarded as perpetual foreigners. And notwithstanding shows like ''Miss Saigon'' and ''Pacific Overtures,'' which are set overseas, ''Flower Drum Song'' has long stood alone as the only Broadway musical ever produced about Asian-Americans....

Over time, we evolved the story of a rundown theater in San Francisco's Chinatown, whose patriarch clings to his dreams of performing Chinese opera despite an ever-shrinking audience. The story of this theater's transformation into a Western-style nightclub became a metaphor for assimilation."

Miss Saigon

Frank Rich – New York Times - 1991

For all that seems galling about "Miss Saigon" -- and for all that is indeed simplistic, derivative and, at odd instances, laughable about it -- this musical is a gripping entertainment of the old school…

Michael Billington - Guardian – 2014

So how does Boublil and Schonberg’s musical stand up 25 years after its premiere? In this new production by Laurence Connor, it survives very well as a piece of musical storytelling and as a public spectacle. It's not a show one loves, in the way one does Guys and Dolls or Sweeney Todd, but I found myself watching it with a professional admiration.

And for the shows liveliest moment here's Jonathan Pryce as Thernandier... The Engineer singing the 11 o'clock number.