'Yellow Face' review — Daniel Dae Kim leads a thoughtful comedy about identity
Read our review of Yellow Face on Broadway, an acclaimed comedy play written by David Henry Hwang and starring Lost and Hawaii Five-0's Daniel Dae Kim.
How do we approach a “post-racial” theatrical landscape? That’s one question that circulates playwright David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face on Broadway, directed by Leigh Silverman at the Todd Haimes Theatre. Through his onstage alter ego, DHH (Daniel Dae Kim), the playwright searches for answers about Chinese American identity and casting politics in an autobiographical(ish) play mixed with a thought experiment.
Inspired by the controversy over a 1991 Miss Saigon casting the non-Asian Jonathan Pryce in an Asian role, Yellow Face toys with the thorniness of this issue through DHH, who finds himself in a racial casting scandal of his own. Kim duly performs a blend of egotistical confidence, comic cowardice, and conscientiousness in the role, and he bounces off an easygoing Ryan Eggold as Marcus, the 100% white guy whom DHH unintentionally grants an Asian American-intended role. Folded within the hilarity are critiques on a system that can enable this snafu.
It’s a task to make Hwang’s genre-shifting — in a way I can’t spoil — play cohesive, but for the most part, Silverman tightens its layers on the gargantuan stage, working with subtle shifts in Arnulfo Maldonado’s set and Yee Eun Nam’s projection design. Two boxy set pieces provide location and historical context (projecting crucial real-life reviews and news articles) with documentary-like efficiency.
Yellow Face pushes its conversation through its racially subversive, often cheeky casting choices in the ensemble. Notably, Shannon Tyo unleashes her own sting in the various players she inhabits (among those an outraged actor ranting about Miss Saigon and a parody of titanic theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh), and it’s impossible not to feel her injecting herself into the roles. Other casting choices, like a non-Asian Kevin Del Aguila playing the Asian actor B.D. Wong, the casting tests our notions of acceptability in theatrical practices.
Yellow Face summary
After winning a Tony Award for his play M. Butterfly in 1988, playwright David Henry Hwang (fictionalized as DHH in the play) protested the yellowface casting of Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce as a “Eurasian” pimp in Miss Saigon. Hwang subsequently penned his 1993 farcical play Face Value, which was a box office and critical failure on Broadway.
These historical events are among the incidents that kick off Hwang’s Yellow Face, a hybrid of autobiography and mockumentary. DHH finds himself in a sticky situation when he accidentally casts an ethnically ambiguous, non-Asian white man, Marcus (Ryan Eggold), in an Asian leading role in Face Value. Matters get muddier when Marcus subsequently inhabits Asian theatrical roles and activism.
Integrated into these events are Hwang’s conversations with his American Dream-loving father, HYH (a memorable Francis Jue), a banker who is eventually subjected to the Senate Banking Affairs Committee sinophobic investigations, which targeted several Chinese Americans including scientist Wen Ho Lee (also Jue).
What to expect at Yellow Face
Yellow Face throws proverbial darts at a white-dominated theatrical institution. It establishes its provocations in an early tongue-in-cheek exchange — “Asian parts must only ever be played by Asian actors” — in which the non-Asian Kevin Del Aguila briefly plays the Asian B.D. Wong.
Yellow Face evolved from its 2007 Off-Broadway premiere at The Public Theater, with the Broadway version casting actors of other races as well aside from white and Asian. Thus, the Broadway production blurs the notions of racial “authenticity” or “racial-subversive” casting, with each actor playing various spectrums of characters not aligned with their race. Yellow Face encourages its audience to gauge what are “unacceptable” and “acceptable” forms of racial performance in various artistic contexts.
What audiences are saying about Yellow Face
As of publication, Yellow Face received an 82% audience approval rating on the site Show-Score, compiled from 63 reviews.
- “Excellent autobiographical play exploring race and identity as well as family dynamics and the immigrant experience in America. Ambitious themes that all come together nicely in this fine-tuned very funny and moving play. Great cast." - Show-Score User GeraldC
- "Interesting and entertaining new work by DHH. Thought provoking expose of everyone's underlying racial biases." - Show-Score user CAROL C 6124
- "Yellow Face is interesting and relevant and often quite funny, and though there are moments when I felt it traded away great opportunities for a deeper dive into the issue for quick jokes and easy resolutions, there's enough here that's provocative and meaningful to make it worthwhile." - ShowScore user Jeff 226
- “Sharp and dynamic, Yellow Face remains topical and relevant in this iteration. Through clever casting that blurs boundaries, it touches on the past while encouraging us to look at our present moment. While not perfect in its delivery, Yellow Face leaves a lasting impression.” - My +1 at the show
Read more audience reviews of Yellow Face on Show-Score.
Who should see Yellow Face
- Those studying what it means to conduct race-subversive casting should see this show. (Leigh Silverman also directed the musical Suffs, with BIPOC cast playing white historical figures.)
- Those interested in perspectives on Asian American representation in the theatre industry should attend. On stage, Hwang and his father have an intergenerational disagreement on the quality of Miss Saigon. (In a personal example, I know Asian American activists who criticize Miss Saigon, while my older Vietnamese refugee relatives enjoy it as a platform for Vietnamese culture.)
- Those interested in David Henry Hwang’s work, including but not limited to M. Butterfly, Bondage, Soft Power (which also features a DHH once played by Francis Jue), and more should see his newest Broadway play.
- Fans of Daniel Dae Kim’s works in shows like Lost would enjoy his comedic chops. It's a priceless meta gag when Kim’s character watches aghast as a white man is cast as The King and I’s King of Siam (a role Kim played on Broadway in 2016).
Learn more about Yellow Face on Broadway
The semi-autobiographical Yellow Face might have stuffiness in its smart script, but Leigh Silverman’s Broadway staging unearths thoughtful questions about casting politics and Chinese American identity.
Photo credit: Yellow Face on Broadway. (Photos by Joan Marcus)
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