Theater Review by Stuart Miller…

In the middle of “Yellow Face,” David Henry Hwang’s funny but pointed look at ethnic identity and bias in America, the character of David Henry Hwang emphatically declares, “When you write an autobiographical play, no one uses their real name. That would be self-indulgent.”

This meta-joke gets an earned laugh even though it comes amidst one of the play’s most fraught moments. Hwang has been furiously countering a New York Times reporter’s parries as the journalist is accusing Hwang’s dad of aiding the Chinese government and asking the playwright to throw his father under the bus. Hwang defends his father and defangs the reporter by pointing out the consistently biases in his reporting (which presumes Chinese-Americans are loyal to China first). It’s a powerful scene… and a fictional one.

Yes, Hwang’s father, Henry, was a classic immigrant success story: he arrived here with nothing, owned a laundry, became an accountant and then founded the first Asian-American-owned bank in America outside of Hawaii. And he was then investigated over the amount of money from China flowing through his bank but was never charged in any way, even though the Times’ coverage sullied his reputation and, according to “Yellow Face” broke his spirit. But the playwright never had that confrontation with the reporter (whose name is omitted but who you can easily find via Google.)

That one scene, aided by the charismatic Daniel Dae Kim as Hwang and Greg Keller as the reporter with blinders on, captures much of what makes “Yellow Face” memorable. (Keller, who plays multiple roles is strong throughout but excels here and while Kim is good in the comedic scenes he’s at his best in the more dramatic moments.)

It’s a fast-paced docu-comedy that covers a lot of ground and years—the heavily narrated opening twenty minutes has the feel of Inigo Montoya’s “Let me ‘splain, no, there is too much, let me sum up” line from “The Princess Bride”– yet it manages to slow down enough for scenes of intense drama and genuine pathos.

(The show is thirty minutes shorter than the original 2007 run and plays without an intermission, all of which serves it well in maintaining its momentum; director Leigh Silverman’s excellent work also reportedly plays the script more for laughs than the original.)

The play opens with Hwang, the token famous Asian-American in theater after the success of “M. Butterfly” speaking out against Cameron Mackintosh casting Jonathan Price as a Eurasian in “Miss Saigon” (with his eye prosthetics and coloring makeup –the “Yellow Face” of the title). But wading into socio-cultural politics proves more complicated than Hwang expected, especially when he inadvertently casts a white man as an Asian (and then lies to cover it up) in “Face Value” his response to the “Miss Saigon” controversy. (Ryan Eggold is excellent as Marcus, the white man who passes as Asian, shifting from blind ambition to obliviousness to sincerity.)

It also deftly blends fact with fiction, often in a way that leaves you uncertain what is real and what isn’t. Much of the play is grounded in fact, but with some devilish twists—the actors who give brief portrayals of everyone from Mackintosh to Ed Koch to Lily Tomlin to BD Wong are often playing roles that don’t match their racial or ethnic backgrounds.  (These secondary players, Keller, Kevn Del Aguila, Marinda Anderson and Shannon Tyo are all very funny.)

And there are bigger exceptions like the scene with the reporter and the plot’s one major twist at the end. (There are also some notable omissions: The play doesn’t mention that while Pryce did play that role on Broadway, Hwang’s outspokenness helped pressure “Miss Saigon” to drop the fake slanted eyes and skin tone; but also years before that banking scandal Hwang’s father did get in legitimate trouble for his role in a corruption scandal involving Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley.)

The play’s best twist is less obvious. Early on it’s about Hwang and what happens when he finds trouble after taking a public stance on entrenched biases in the theater. It’s funny but feels a bit slight until Hwang considerably raises the stakes in the second half by pivoting to the unjust persecution by the government and media of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and then of Hwang’s father. (Francis Jue plays the father for broad laughs early on but is more nuanced and quite moving when his situation grows precarious.)

These storylines give weight to all the barbed jokes, meta-humor and farcical moments that preceded it and make the viewer look at our country’s worst tendencies and question whether America has ever really learned to embrace its immigrant identity… even as China has indeed become an economic and political rival and interference by China and other countries has become a genuine issue in American elections. With that backdrop and a hate and vengeance-filled xenophobe running for president, this is an especially timely revival for “Yellow Face.”

Yellow Face is a Roundabout Theatre production and opened October 1st at the Todd Haimes Theatre, 227 W 42nd St. It runs 1 hour 40 minutes without intermission.

Photos Credit:  Joan Marcus, 2024