House of Flowers is a musical by Harold Arlen (music and lyrics) and Truman Capote (lyrics and book), based on his own novella. This was Capote's only musical.
After a Philadelphia tryout, the show opened on Broadway on December 30, 1954 at the Alvin Theatre and played for 165 performances. The director was Peter Brook. The cast included Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Juanita Hall, Ray Walston, and Geoffrey Holder. Although the show received generally poor reviews, the dance-rhythm infused score has been praised for its mix of blues and calypso. Most of the original orchestral score for Flowers has been lost, but the piano score survives.[1] Oliver Messel won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design, the show's only nomination.
The story concerns two neighboring bordellos that battle for business in an idealized West Indies setting. One of the prostitutes, Ottilie, turns down a rich lord to marry a poor mountain boy named Royal. Her madam plots to keep her by having Royal sealed in a barrel and tossed into the ocean. Royal escapes the watery death by taking refuge on the back of a turtle. The lovers are eventually married and live happily ever after.
There was an unsuccessful Off-Broadway revival in 1968 at Theater de Lys. In 2003, there was an Encores! production, starring Tonya Pinkins and Armelia McQueen as the battling bordello madams and Maurice Hines as Captain Jonas, the smuggler. The virginal Ottilie was played by Nikki M. James, and the mountain boy, Royal, was played by Brandon Victor Dixon. Roscoe Lee Browne played the voodoo priest, Houngan.