Chu Chem is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with a book by Ted Allen, lyrics by Jim Haines and Jack Wohl, and music by Mitch Leigh

Mitch Leigh

Mitch Leigh is an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man Of La Mancha.-Biography:Leigh was born in Brooklyn, New York) as Irwin Michnick...

.

Allen's inspiration was a trip to Kaifeng

Kaifeng

Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...

 Fu (prefecture), China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, the site of a major Jewish migration

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

 in the 10th century (see Kaifeng Jews

Kaifeng Jews

The Kaifeng Jews are members of a small Jewish community that has existed in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China, for hundreds of years. Jews in modern China have traditionally called themselves Youtai in Mandarin Chinese which is also the predominant contemporary Chinese language term for...

). Around this subject matter he devised a play-within-a-play with an intricate plot involving a group of Occidental

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 actors who join a troupe of Chinese performers to present the title character's story. Chu Chem is a scholar who, with his wife Rose and daughter Lotte, journeys to Kaifeng Fu to learn about his ancestors and find a husband for the young woman. Prince Eagle suggests she become one of his concubines

Concubinage

Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...

, a proposal she finds distasteful. Eventually he abdicates his throne for the woman he loves, and Chu Chem discovers the Jews became so assimilated

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

 into their new homeland that no traces of them are to be found.

The production's designs attempted to imitate traditional Chinese theatre, ironically with sumo

Sumo

is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

 wrestlers (one the son of Man Mountain Dean

Man Mountain Dean

Man Mountain Dean , born Frank Simmons Leavitt, was a professional wrestler of the early 1900s.He was born in New York City, the son of John McKenney and Henrietta N. Leavitt. From childhood, Frank Leavitt was remarkably large in stature...

) grappling onstage during intermission to entertain the audience. Director Albert Marre

Albert Marre

Albert Marre is an American director and producer in the theatre.Born in New York City, Marre made his Broadway debut as an actor and associate director of the 1950 revival of John Vanbrugh's Restoration comedy The Relapse...

 cast Yiddish theatre

Yiddish theatre

Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and...

 stars Menasha Skulnik

Menasha Skulnik

Menasha Skulnik was a Jewish American actor, primarily known for his roles in Yiddish theater in New York City. Skulnik was also popular on radio, playing Uncle David on The Goldbergs for 19 years...

 and Molly Picon

Molly Picon

Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....

 as Chu Chem and Rose, Marcia Rodd

Marcia Rodd

Marcia Rodd is an American actress.Rodd was born in Lyons, Kansas, the daughter of Rosetta and Charles C. Rodd. She studied drama at Northwestern University....

 as Lotte, and James Shigeta

James Shigeta

James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...

 as Prince Eagle. Choreographer Jack Cole

Jack Cole (choreographer)

Jack Cole was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the father of theatrical jazz dance.-Early life:...

 also took on the role of Mongol Lord Hoo Hah.

During rehearsals Picon, upset that her role had been reduced, walked out, but eventually returned. The November 1966 tryout at the New Locust Theatre in Philadelphia was plagued by constant revisions to the script and score, and an unhappy Picon quit permanently. At one point on opening night, her successor Henrietta Jacobson turned to the audience and announced, "There was a song here, but you'll be better off without it." The reviews were brutal, with one critic describing it "like blintz

Blintz

A blin, blintze, or blintz is a thin pancake. It is somewhat similar to a crêpe with the main difference being that yeast may be used in blini, but not in crêpes.-Etymology, origins, culture :...

es and soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

" and suggesting "a better title might be The King and Oy." Co-producers Leigh and Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation, she moved to New York City and enrolled at the Theatre Guild's school...

 immediately cancelled the scheduled Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 opening at the George Abbott Theatre.

Unwilling to leave well enough alone, Allen and Leigh decided to revive the show twenty-two years later at the Jewish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. The greatly revamped version eliminated the play-within-a-play concept and the role of Rose, placed greater emphasis on the romance between Lotte and the prince, and revised the score. Encouraged by a favorable review http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=940DE6D71630F930A15751C1A96E948260 from the third-string New York Times critic, the creative team decided to move it uptown.

The Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Albert Marre, opened on March 17, 1989 at the Ritz Theatre

Walter Kerr Theatre

The Walter Kerr Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre. Located at 219 West 48th Street, it is owned and operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. One of the smaller auditoriums in the theatre district, it seats 975....

 where, hampered by a no-name cast (Emily Zacharias as Lotte, Mark Zeller as Chu Chem, and Thom Sesma as the prince) and poor-to-dreadful reviews, it ran for only 68 performances, continuing for two months at heavy losses in the hope it would garner some Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 nominations in a season beset by bad musicals (Carrie, Legs Diamond

Legs Diamond (musical)

Legs Diamond is a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and Charles Suppon based on the Warner Brothers film "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond"...

). When it was shut out, the production closed, a two-time flop in musical theatre history.

Song list

Act I

• Orient Yourself
• What Happened, What?
• Welcome
• You'll Have to Change
• Love Is
• I'll Talk to Her
• Shame on You
• It Must Be Good for Me
• I'll Talk to Her (Reprise)
• You'll Have to Change (Reprise)
• The River
• We Dwell in Our Hearts
• Goodbye Love, Goodbye

Act II

• Re-Orient Yourself
• What Happened, What? (Reprise)
• I Once Believed
• It's Possible
• Our Kind of War
• Boom!