In residency at La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre (SDAART, www.asianamerican-rep.org) proves itself worthy of selection for the Playhouse’s 2010-11 Resident Theater Program. Through June 12, SDAART presents a praiseworthy production of “Flower Drum Song, A Musical Revival in Concert.” This is the 2002 Broadway version of the 1958 Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II musical. Playwright David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly,” “Yellow Face”) wrote a new book based on the original by Hammerstein and Joseph Fields. The “in concert” part of the work’s title is rather misleading. This is a fully-staged production in the Playhouse’s Shank Theatre, replete with costumes, scenic design, dance and music by director/keyboard player Thomas Hodges and a drummer. Hodges is excellent, accompanying the entire musical without a page-turner. The missing drum matters little when listeners encounter the marvelous performance of San Diego State University student Mindy Ella Chu, who portrays Mei Lei, a young Chinese woman who flees Chairman Mao’s China when her father is killed while resisting Mao’s henchmen. All her father gave to Mei Lei was an ancestral drum and the address of his best friend, widower Wang Chi Yang (Albert Park), who produces Chinese Opera in his theater in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Mei Lei falls in love with Yang’s son, Ta (David Armstrong). Caught between the old and new cultures, Ta prefers the Americanized Linda Low (Tiffany Loui), who strips in a once-a-week nightclub show. Linda prefers white men, so she asks Mei Lei to take Ta off her hands, even fixing her up with an American gown to seal the deal. Others in the large company are Patrick Mayuyu as Yang’s helper and entertainer, Chin, and Dante Macatantan as Chao, an admirer of Mei Lei. Madame Liang (Elise Kim Prosser), a show biz agent, hopes to promote Linda. Madame convinces Wang Chi, who is putty in her hands, to turn the opera house into a nightclub, Club Chop Suey, and to assume the name Sammy Fong. Romance comes to all except poor Chao, who returns to China. Choreographed by Gina Ma is “Fan Tan Fannie,” in which the dancers snap open huge lavender fans in time to the music. Loui is a better dancer than she is a singer, pulls off “I Enjoy Being a Girl” reasonably well nonetheless. And the exceptionally handsome Armstrong, a better actor than a singer, somehow navigates Ta’s high tessitura (“You Are Beautiful”) without crashing. But it is Chu who entrances with shy but generous acting, her gorgeous, evenly produced mezzo-soprano voice, singing the fine songs “Love, Look Away” and the infectious “A Hundred Million Miracles.” Peter James Cirino directs. Scenic designer Dominic Abbenante works wonders with two screens, chairs, tables and digital projections. Costumes by Caroline Rousset-Johnson, her UCSD MFA thesis project, are fetching. The production uses no microphones and diction is clear. “Flower Drum Song” continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. on Sundays through June 12 at the Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. Tickets ($15-$25) are available by emailing [email protected] or calling (619) 940-5891.
