David Henry Hwang wrote “Yellow Face” almost two decades ago, comically rendering three deflating or enraging real-life events in which he was involved up to three decades ago. And yet as I watched Daniel Dae Kim portray the character based on the playwright in the first ever Broadway production of the play, I couldn’t help thinking of a long list of events that have recently happened, such as:
Kamala Harris being accused of suddenly turning Black
Haitian migrants being accused of eating pets
Jewish Americans being accused of having dual loyalties
No, there is no direct connection. Yes, “Yellow Face” is specific to the Asian-American experience, and much of it (the first two-thirds) happens just within the theater world. But the misunderstanding, hate, fear, suspicion, and outrage surrounding issues of identity seem to have taken center stage in this country. This might well make audiences find new relevance in Hwang’s comedy, which is opening tonight at Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theater. Mixing fact with fantasy, “Yellow Face” is as thoughtful as it is playful, not the self-indulgent autobiography that “DHH” himself calls it in the play itself – one of its many mischievous meta-theatrical touches.
DHH is how Kim’s character is listed in the program, but there is no mistaking who we’re talking about. DHH, like David Henry Hwang, was the first Asian-American playwright to have a play produced on Broadway,(“M Butterfly.”)We see him accepting a Tony Award from Lily Tomlin, and giving a speech in which he says it’s time for white actors like Mickey Rooney and David Carradine to stop portraying Asian characters (a practice known as Yellow Face.)
So when he learns that Jonathan Pryce, a Welsh actor who portrayed a Eurasian character in the British production of “Miss Saigon,” has been cast to repeat the performance on Broadway, DHH leads the fight to get Actors Equity to bar him, which it does. This prompts the producer Cameron Mackintosh to announce cancelation of the show. This leads to Actors Equity to reverse its decision. Each step is accompanied by sharp commentary, bold headlines and loud protests.
DHH smarts at the experience, and decides to write a play inspired by it, called “Face Value,” which becomes a notorious Broadway flop, closing before it opens.
The third event leaves the theater world to recount the fear among Republican politicians in the late 1990s of a Chinese fifth column in America that resulted in the prosecution of Wen Ho Lee, a nuclear scientist in Los Alamos, and the investigation of DHH’s own father, here called HYH (Henry Y Hwang), the CEO of the Far East National Bank based in California after he contributed to the campaign of Bill Clinton.
Under the direction of Leigh Silverman (who also directed the 2007 Off Broadway production), the first two of these three stories are presented as something between a comedy revue and a pageant, with the set as fluid as the panoply of briefly appearing characters, divvied up among the seven-member cast; Kevin Del Aguila, to pick an extreme example, has 23 roles, including B.D.Wong, critic Frank Rich, Mayor Ed Koch, and several newspapers. Each character is introduced by an announcer by name and title. eg
Announcer (played by Greg Keller): “Cameron Mackintosh, producer of Miss Saigon”
Cameron Mackintosh (played by Shannon Tyo): “This is a tempest in an Oriental teapot”
Among such a protean comic cast, Kim, who is used to playing a chiseled leading man, holds his own; it’s a compliment to observe that he doesn’t stand out. If there is a standout, it’s probably Francis Jue (the one holdover from the 2007 Off-Broadway cast) whose principal character is HYH; he gives a charming and amusing portrait of an American immigrant patriot and naïve optimist, that turns into something more poignant.
That happens in the third story, where the scenes are longer. The most memorable is probably an interview DHH grants to a reporter for the New York Times, who is officially called “Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel,” who tries to worm his way into DHH’s trust, and get him to implicate his father in a scheme involving the Chinese government. The scene ends with DHH telling the reporter he was going to write him as a character in his next play (and perhaps he did.)
Threaded throughout the stories are some delicious satiric bits, in which Hwang mocks his own self-righteousness and hypocrisy, along with other well-intentioned activists; there’s one devilish scene in which DHH addresses mercilessly hectoring Asian-American students
The one clear and complete fabrication in “Yellow Face” is as pointed as it is hilarious. Through a misunderstanding, DHH, the hero of the Miss Saigon Yellow Face controversy, mistakenly hires a Caucasian actor to portray the lead Asian character in “Face Value,” which leads to some truly comic complications as well as thought-provoking implications, when the actor, Marcus (Ryan Eggold), becomes an outspoken leader of the Asian-American community.
The creative team has tweaked “Yellow Face” a bit, removing the intermission and a couple of scenes, adding a line here and there, changing the ending a bit. But little of this is really updating. For better or worse, the play didn’t need to update.
Yellow Face
Todd Haimes Theater through November 24
Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $58 – $354. Digital lottery:
Written by David Henry Hwang
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Set design by Arnulfo Maldonado , costume design by Anita Yavich, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, sound design and original music by Caroline Eng and Kate Marvin
Cast: Daniel Dae Kim, Kevin Del Aguila, Ryan Eggold as Marcus, Francis Jue as HYH and others, Marinda Anderson, Greg Keller as Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel (a reporter) and Shannon Tyo as Leah and others.
Photographs by Joan Marcus
