"A chewy, challenging work that draws its comedy from racial misunderstandings and from shrewd dissection of ways in which we are all, at times, blind."-Daniel D'Addario, Variety
Part biography, part comic fantasy, Yellow Face is David Henry Hwang's sendup of anti-Asian stereotypes and the traps he falls into searching for acceptance in a not-so-colorblind world. The play starts in the 1990s as the fictional DHH is casting Miss Saigon and unwittingly casts a white actor in the role of the engineer. This happens alongside the real-life investigation of Hwang's father, the first Asian American to own a federally chartered bank, and the espionage charges against physicist Wen Ho Lee. Adroitly combining a light touch with weighty political and emotional issues, Hwang creates a "a docu-style comedy recounting [a] controversy from his point of view" (Washington Post).
The Broadway version of Hwang's incisive play is leaner and more adept at balancing the comedy and seriousness of the stories portrayed. The play also "blurs the notions of racial 'authenticity' or 'racial-subversive' casting, with each actor playing various spectrums of characters not aligned with their race" (New York Theatre Guide). Having originally debuted Off-Broadway nearly two decades ago, the core takeaway is this: Yellow Face remains as poignant as ever.
