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By J.K. YAMAMOTO East West Players will be presenting the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical \u201cFlower Drum Song\u201d from April 16 to May 31 at the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo, featuring both EWP veterans and newcomers.<\/p>\n One of the veterans is Emily Kuroda, who has extensive stage, film and TV credits and is best known for playing Mrs. Kim on the TV series \u201cGilmore Girls.\u201d In her 47th show with EWP, she will be playing Madame Liang, a talent agent and businesswoman.<\/p>\n The play opened on Broadway in 1958 and a film adaptation was released in 1961. Although the songs have remained the same, Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang wrote a new book for the Broadway revival in 2002 and has written another new book for this year\u2019s production.<\/p>\n Kuroda remembers watching the movie on TV as a girl. Miyoshi Umeki, who played Mei-Li, \u201cbecame my idol.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie also featured James Shigeta, Jack Soo, Benson Fong, Juanita Hall and Nancy Kwan as Linda Low, the showgirl played by Pat Suzuki in the Broadway production.<\/p>\n Although the musical has been criticized in the past by Asian American activists for promoting stereotypes, more recently it has been seen in a more positive light as a showcase for Asian Ameican talent.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving grown up in the climate of post-World War II with strong anti-Asian sentiment, I was raised to become more American and deny my Japanese heritage in order to survive, and here comes \u2018Flower Drum Song,\u2019 with people who looked like me not afraid to be Asian in America, and, in fact, celebrating our culture with dance, music and love,\u201d Kuroda said. \u201cThey were real human beings!\u201d<\/p>\n Kuroda played Mei-Li, the female lead, in San Francisco Musical Theater\u2019s production in 1979, and she recalls being mentored by Alvin Ing, who played Wang Ta, the male lead, in the touring production and a different character, Chin, in the 2002 revival.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I auditioned, Alvin Ing was in the waiting area and he coached me on my song right before I went in, and I got the job! Alvin went on to do many \u2018Flower Drum Songs,\u2019 and remains an inspiration to me for his pure love of music, art, and most of all, the meaning of friendship. And man, was he funny!\u201d<\/p>\n While the story is still set in San Francisco Chinatown and many of the same characters appear, Kuroda noted, \u201cDavid has added so many layers to the characters. By intertwining the often painful journey from imported railway workers, the Cultural Revolution, the Exclusion Act, the Chinese Massacre, decades of violence and racism to the 1960s \u2013 Chinatown, San Francisco, USA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe show celebrates our ancestors, our history, our struggles, our strength and, most importantly, our community. We don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuroda says of her own character, \u201cMadame Liang was an often-single woman in the \u201950s and \u201960s \u2014 she couldn\u2019t keep a husband because she didn\u2019t fit the \u2018wife mold.\u2019 Not only was she Asian American, but she was a woman, so she had to work three times as hard, be five times as clever, and learn to play the game, but she never, ever, loses her heart and her passion. And she always likes a good laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n Although many more Asian American stories are being told on stage and screen compared to the \u201950s and \u201960s, she feels that \u201cFlower Drum Song\u201d still has value for today\u2019s audiences. \u201cIf you want to move forward, you have to look back.\u201d<\/p>\n A Musical Every Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Kuroda started out doing dinner theater, then moved to EWP in 1978. \u201cWe did a musical every year \u2013 Paul Wong and I share many musicals over the decades.\u201d Wong is a member of the ensemble and an understudy in the upcoming show.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 15 years I concentrated on non-musicals, often working plays from early workshops to national productions (\u2018Woman Warrior,\u2019 \u2018Happy Pleasant Valley,\u2019 \u2018Tiger Style,\u2019 \u2018Today Is my Birthday,\u2019 \u2018The Endlings,\u2019 \u2018Canton Jazz Club,\u2019 and many more), and now I\u2019m doing musicals again,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThis is my ninth musical project in the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n While playing Mrs. Kim, mother of Lane Kim (Keiko Agena), on \u201cGilmore Girls\u201d for seven years has been memorable, Kuroda said, \u201cThere is something in each project I do that becomes an integral part of my being. I have been diving in Jeju, surfed in Santa Cruz, interned at Manzanar, suffered the Cultural Revolution, was the femme fatale (in more ways than one) at a senior center, a nun in the U.K., and a housewife who fights dinosaurs with her bare hands, just to name a very few.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuroda\u2019s recent screen credits include the TV series \u201cThe Power,\u201d \u201cBaymax!,\u201d \u201cAll Rise\u201d and \u201cThe Good Doctor,\u201d and the movies \u201cStrange World, \u201c Kimi\u201d and \u201cAdopting Audrey.\u201d<\/p>\n Upcoming projects include \u201cThe End of Oak Street\u201d (formerly titled \u201cFlowervale Street\u201d) with Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, in which a cosmic event transports a suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown. \u201cI have a small part, but it\u2019s so much fun,\u201d Kuroda says.<\/p>\n \u201cI am also doing a concert at Joe\u2019s Pub in New York and am later going to the Edinburgh Festival (\u2018Right Before I Go\u2019 by Stan Zimmerman) in August, and, I hope, a London presentation after that,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The cast of \u201cFlower Drum Song\u201d also includes Mark Oka as Wang, Scott Keiji Takeda as Da, Grace Yoo as Mei-Li, Krista Marie Yu as Linda Low, Kenton Chen as Harvard, Cooper Bennett as Chao, and Gedde Watanabe as Chin.<\/p>\n The Aratani Theatre is located at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, 244 S. San Pedro St. in Little Tokyo. Preview performances begin April 16, with Opening Night set for Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. Regular performances take place on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with additional select weekday shows and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n
Rafu Shimpo<\/em><\/p>\n