Flower Drum Song Ballet

[EvanstonDad]

Posted: 1/28/26 at 2:06pm

The 1961 movie adaptation of Flower Drum Song includes a lengthy ballet sequence. Does anyone know if the original Broadway musical contained a ballet, and if so, is there any recording of FDS that includes it? I feel like this is a show that needs a complete recording similar to the treatments they've done recently to Oklahoma!, Carousel, and My Fair Lady.

[merle57]

Posted: 1/28/26 at 3:27pm

After Love Look Away, there was a ballet in Flower Drum Song on Broadway, but more an Asian dance piece - one can see photos of it in the souvenir program. It was not the jazzy thing in the movie.  Carol Haney did the choreoraphy for the stage version, not Gene Kelly who was just the overall stage director.  I recall it as a very beautiful Chinese ballet showing her distress at losing Wang Ta. Love Look Away and the ballet were the first musical numbers in the second act.