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Interview with David Lober, June 17, 2003

 File
Identifier: 2017.032.005

Scope and Contents

A phone interview conducted by David Lewis Hammarstrom with David Lober on June 17, 2003. David was part of the dance ensemble of the 1958 Rogers and Hammerstein production of "Flower Drum Song."

In this interview, David shares various aspects of his experience on “Flower Drum Song,” including auditioning, working with choreographer Carole Haney and director Gene Kelly, serving as dance captain, being let go during the national tour, appealing his firing through an Actors’ Equity arbitration, and meeting his wife, who was also a dancer on the show. He also offers his thoughts on critiques that the show modeled offensive Asian stereotypes, David Henry Hwang’s modern rewriting of the show and whether it was sacrilegious to rewrite musicals from the golden era, and how he thinks musical theater has changed since the 1940s and 1950s. This interview is one of a series of 18 interviews that author David Lewis Hammarstrom conducted in 2003 as part of research for his book, Flower Drum Songs: The Story of Two Musicals (2006).

Dates

  • June 17, 2003

Conditions Governing Use

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, belong to the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). Interview can only be reproduced with permission from the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA).

Extent

3.831 Megabytes

Language of Materials

English

Repository Details

Part of the Museum of Chinese in America Repository

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