Blink and you’ll miss it! “Yellow Face” starring Korean American actor Daniel Dae Kim makes its Broadway debut nearly two decades after premiering off-Broadway and with productions worldwide. Written by the prolific Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang, the play is billed as a semiautobiographical comedy. In it, Hwang places his fictional self through the wringer — following the character through the very real flop of Hwang’s 1993 play “Face Value,” which did not survive past preview shows.
The ’90s were a tumultuous time for Hwang. He had just participated in the “Miss Saigon” protests, where he wrote a letter against the casting of a white actor in the role of the Asian pimp. Also central to the play is Hwang’s father Henry Y. Hwang, who founded the first Asian American bank, Far East National Bank. In 1999, the bank was placed under scrutiny for allegedly aiding the Republic of China in moving millions of dollars into the United States.
So where’s the comedy and the fiction? Hwang’s witty mind creates an alternative universe where right after participating in the protests against casting a white actor in an Asian role, he turns around and does the same himself. Seeking a masculine man to play the lead role in “Face Value,” David accidentally casts Marcus, a white actor who was in an Asian American production, thinking he is at least a little bit Asian — and Marcus just goes with it until he is fully entrenched in the Asian American community.
With a 100-minute run time, the production is a commentary on gender norms, the racialization of Asian Americans, and representation. I talked to Hwang about racial and ethnicity matching in casting, methods of addressing political issues through art, and the resonance of “Yellow Face” today.
Daniel Dae Kim Takes Center Stage
When the play first premiered in 2007, most Americans probably could not name an Asian American actor aside from Daniel Dae Kim on ABC’s “Lost.”…
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