“The Sultan of Sulu”, a smash hit Broadway play from the early 1900s, had it all: a musical monarch, multiple wives, plenty of laughs, and a sly, anti-imperialist message tucked into the libretto.

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References:

Mendoza, Victor Roman (2015). Metroimperial Intimacies: Fantasy, Racial-Sexual Governance, and the Philippines in U.S. Imperialism, 1899-1913. Duke University Press.

Charbonneau, Oliver (2021). Civilizational Imperatives: Americans, Moros, and the Colonial World. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Ade, George (1903). The Sultan of Sulu. R.H. Russell. https://archive.org/details/sultansulu00adegrich

“Wasit to Paradise” (30 November, 1936). Time https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,757014,00.html

Select audio snippets from the promotions and performance of the Canton Comic Opera Company, uploaded on the American Musical Productions YouTube channel.