Professor Emeritus David Henry Hwang and Dramaturgy Alum Annie Jin Wang '20 Will Collaborate on Revamped 'Flower Drum Song'

Dramaturgy alum Annie Jin Wang '20 will serve as the dramaturg on the world premiere of Professor Emeritus David Henry Hwang’s updated version of Flower Drum Song, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical from 1958. This production will premiere with the Los Angeles-based company The East West Players, the longest running Asian-American theater company in the United States, from April 16 until May 31. 2026 at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center’s (JACCC) Aratani Theatre.

Flower Drum Song, adapted from a 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese-American novelist C. Y. Lee, tells the story of Mei Li, a Chinese immigrant arriving in San Francisco’s Chinatown for an arranged marriage to Sammy Fong, a nightclub owner. This is not Hwang’s first attempt to rewrite this musical. After attending a production of The King and I in 2002, Hwang challenged himself to think of other Rodgers and Hammerstein works that could be adapted. Hwang discussed his choice to revisit this project in a profile by Mark Harris in The New York Times Style Magazine this past October: “For Hwang, the impulse comes from an understanding that a piece of live theater is always in dialogue with the context in which it appears, so why not keep the conversation alive by treating plays as ongoing projects rather than museum artifacts?”

“I’m thrilled to revisit and further revise this classic musical," said Hwang, "working once again with the company that has been at the heart of my entire artistic life.”

"One of the most exciting things about working on this version of Flower Drum Song as a dramaturg is that it's both classic musical and secretly a new work," shared Wang, "so we’re enjoying two simultaneous artistic processes—we get to reintroduce Rodgers and Hammerstein's iconic score and the history of Chinese-American nightclubs, called The Chop Suey circuit, to a new generation of artists and audience, and we get to introduce conversations around topics like immigration, intra-community discrimination, and cultural preservation into the rehearsal room that already live in the book but wouldn't have been possible with the 1958 or 2002 productions.” Wang added that she’s “really honored to be working on this production with David and East West Players, who have allowed so many Asian Americans to see themselves as part of the artistic community.

Flower Drum Song, whose principal cast includes Hadestown’s Grace Yoo and Emily Kuroda, known for her role on Gilmore Girls, will be directed by East West Player’s artistic director Lily Tung Crystal.

David Henry Hwang is a Chinese-American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. His stageworks include Yellowface, M. Butterfly, Chinglish, as well as the musical Soft Power. His opera libretti include The Monkey King at the San Francisco Opera, Ainadamar at The Metropolitan Opera (2024), and American Soldier at The Perelman Performing Arts Center (2024). Hwang received a Tony award for M. Butterfly and three Obie Awards for his plays Fob, Golden Child, and Yellowface. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. The 2024 Broadway premier of Yellowface starring Daniel Dae Kim, received three Tony nominations, including one win by supporting actor Francis Jue. Hwang is currently at work on a biopic about Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong for actress Gemma Chan. 

Annie Jin Wang is a dramaturg and generative artist from Naperville, Illinois. Work work as a dramaturg on plays, musicals, and operas spanning old classics to new works. Wang’s work investigates questions of race, gender, and citizenship. Notable collaborations includes the New York Times’ critic pick opera Hildegard by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Obie-award winning Salesman 之死 by Jeremy Tiang. She frequently collaborates with Beth Morrison Projects, Musical Theatre Factor, the O’Neill National Theatre Center, and The Playwrights Center. For her generative art, she was the inaugural recipient of the Repertory Theatre Grant from her alma mater Wellesley College. She was a member of the 2022–23 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and completed a residency at Target Margin Theatre. She currently serves as the Associate Artistic Director at East West Players, and previously served as the Associate Director for Artistic Programming at PlayCo and Artistic Associate at Theater Mu, an Asian American Theatre Company located in Minneapolis. Prior to Flower Drum Song, Wang served as the dramaturg for Alyssa Haddad-Chin’s You Should Be So Lucky at The Denver Center for The Performing Arts. In the fall of 2027, she’ll work on Star Singer, a Beth Morrison Project opera. 

Tickets for Flower Drum Song can be purchased here.