Sixty-five years ago today, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical Flower Drum Song opened on Broadway, the eighth of the iconic team's musical collaborations. Broadway favorites Preston Mui (Hamilton) and Stephanie Jae Park (Hamilton, The King and I) are marking the special anniversary with a new music video made in collaboration with all-Asian dance group The Dynasties.
"I Enjoy Being a Girl" pays tribute to Flower Drum Song and Pat Suzuki, the original cast member who introduced the tune in the show. Suzuki was on hand at the music video's final rehearsal, and her great niece Lauren Mochizuki is the project's featured dancer. Watch above.
The song will be released on all music platforms via No Reverse Records.
But the performance does not present the song exactly as it appeared in 1958. "As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I wanted to highlight and celebrate that no matter what gender you identify with, anyone can feel like a girl," says Mui, who also directed and choreographed the video, in a statement. "The video proudly features a drag queen, a gay man, and a trans woman."
Ashley and Preston Mui's Ho Mei Do serves as producer on the project, the concept for which Preston dreamed up while an artist-in-residence at Peridance Center. "We are so often tokenized and are given few opportunities to take up space. I created this project, not only to reclaim the narrative of this song and pay tribute to Pat Suzuki, but to also highlight the strength and beauty of Asian performers,” says Mui.
The Dynasties, an all-Asian female burlesque cabaret group created by Mui in 2013, gives its performers a platform to celebrate their beauty and the legacy of Asian culture. Performers featured in "I Enjoy Being a Girl" include Annika Wong, Dan Lai, Didi Tran, Denise Chan, Emma Stricker, Lauren Mochizuki, Manatsu Aminaga, Miku Hirayama, Youlmae Kim, and Lady Celestina.
See photos from the music video shoot below: