‘Yellow Face’ is unabashedly back for its Broadway debut
The revival reimagines the possibilities of representation, belonging, and storytelling
Daniel Dae Kim as DHH in "Yellow Face."
Joan Marcus
Words by Janvi Sai
There’s Yellowface, the gripping psychological thriller and satirical novel by author R. F. Kuang about whitewashing and racism in the publishing industry. There’s Yellow Face: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood, an indie documentary film about, you know. And then there’s Yellow Face, the play that came before them.
“Titles aren’t copyrightable, so it’s all cool—although mine was first,” quips playwright David Henry Hwang, playfully addressing the similarity between the titles of his play and Kuang’s book, while promoting Yellow Face’s audio recording, available exclusively on Audible. The video was posted to his Instagram account back in May, alongside the Audible drama’s release, ahead of the play’s Broadway run.
Yellow Face officially opened on Tuesday, and will run through Nov. 24 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Todd Haimes Theatre.
Daniel Dae Kim plays playwright David Henry Hwang in "Yellow Face."
Playbill cover for "Yellow Face"
The pre-show curtain screen is merely white, with the play’s title penned in Courier, the typeface widely associated with scripts. As the show’s start time approaches, a pulsating text cursor, all but unnoticeably, appears after the title on the screen.
The show’s start is signaled by Hwang’s voice filling the theater, cementing his personal connection to the work. Upon hearing his recording, several audience members behind me cheer him on as if we are at a sporting event, and they know him.
Yellow Face is more or less autobiographical and inspired by real events. The play follows DHH, a fictionalized version of Hwang, and his comedic faux pas of creating a play to challenge the casting of a white actor as an Asian lead in Miss Saigon, only to unwittingly do the same in his own production.
Just as playwright Branden Jacobs Jenkins loosely named a character after himself in An Octoroon (which adapts and satirizes representations of race in Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon),with great levels of absurdity, Hwang’s DHH similarly contributes to the irony and farce at play in Yellow Face. And whether there’s exaggeration, fabrication, or fact, all benefit comically and dramatically from the framing of the playwright’s own perspective, and him not only as dramatist, but as character.
Hwang is no stranger to confronting politics of race and identity in his vast body of work. He’s built a trailblazing career and legacy as a leading Asian American dramatic writer, with numerous Tony, Grammy, and Obie awards and nominations, in addition to being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama three times. Yellow Face was one of those finalists.
But the story he chooses to tell in Yellow Face isn’t about his many accolades and successes. This play is shaped by his failure.
The semi-autobiographical tale involves the real-life, short-lived production of Hwang’s play Face Value, which closed prematurely during its previews before it even opened, and never reached Broadway as planned. From that failed farce satirizing a white actor in yellow face, came this praised one.
Since its premiere at the Los Angeles Music Center in 2007, Yellow Face has been produced across the country and internationally. Tony-nominated director Leigh Silverman, who also has received attention this year for the buzzy musical Suffs on Broadway, led Yellow Face’s off-Broadway opening at The Public Theater in New York at the end of 2007, as well as its recent audio drama. Now she continues as a longtime collaborator to direct its Broadway beginnings.
Lead actor Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Hawaii Five-0) has also reprised his role from the Audible partnership as DHH, as has Francis Jue (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cambodian Rock Band). Greg Keller (The Thanksgiving Play, Wit) in the part of Reporter appears intermittently at first before his character’s larger purpose is revealed later. Four of the seven actors in the cast play multiple parts—less like an ensemble, and more as an active quasi-reenactment of DHH’s world by a choral voice. Actors Marinda Anderson (A League of Their Own, Miss You Like Hell), Kevin Del Aguila (Some Like It Hot, Peter and the Starcatcher), Shannon Tyo (The Chinese Lady, The Comeuppance), and Jue are double or triple casted, and some more. In turn, they shapeshift and stretch between their various characters.
The cast of "Yellow Face."
Courtesy of Polk & Co
Similarly, the set appears both minimal and unconfined. The stage contorts beyond any limits to convey concept or location: Abstract recitations of headlines become physical spaces, those become a neon-lit adult store, which becomes an interrogation room, and so on.
Some scenes have more than one setting, allowing the audience to be in two places at once—with flashbacks, emails, phone calls, and voicemails exchanged between characters and presented through split staging—DHH on one side and another character speaking to him from elsewhere on the other.
The setup of these interactions amplifies the amusement of some dialogue and the anguish of others. When DHH avoids calls from his accidental white lead Marcus, played by Ryan Eggold (BlacKkKlansman, New Amsterdam) in his Broadway debut, the discomfort in DHH’s silence and Marcus’ pleas is bolstered by the physical presence of both characters. The stage also finds moments to expand and close in on itself, highlighting particularly tense moments.
So if you’re looking to experience a picturesque theater set complete with a beautiful backdrop and many detailed props, you’re not going to get that here. Nor is this a 12 Angry Men situation, with a clever approach told in one single lifelike location. Rather, the production finds its texture and specificity elsewhere.
The baseline simplicity of the stage allows Yellow Face to have multiple physical and emotional transitions and instances. That’s not to say that it isn’t sensorially appealing. Sound and lighting play a pivotal part in introducing and setting scenes and tones. In fact, the play starts and concludes on a haunting and soulful East Asian-inspired melody.
The cycle of the play reads and performs like working to solve a mystery of how we’ve gotten to the point at which it begins.
Beginning the play with its ending carves the story into a compelling structure. Some scenes linger, while others depart as swiftly as they arrive. A few pass by so quickly that one might question their necessity within the grander scheme. Yet, this mirrors the nature of vignettes and memory. The longer scenes work precisely because of the shorter ones, creating a rhythm where imbalance occasionally brings balance to the overall pacing. The cycle of the play reads and performs like working to solve a mystery of how we’ve gotten to the point at which it begins.
An unintended irony by the comedy is in Silverman’s other Broadway project Suffs, which people protested online and in person for claims of whitewashing women’s suffragist history, while Yellow Face is directly concerned with the matter. I’m hesitant to use the word redemption when mentioning controversy around a white woman and depictions of race; however, Yellow Face still presents an opportunity for meaningful discussion. It disarms us with heart and hilarity, and unsettles us with painful frustrations about racist obstacles and structures in our country. It asks, “How do you move forward when your industry and home don’t love you back?”
By building off of the ruins of his previous defeat, Hwang shows us how the less desirable moments in our lives can hold power positively. All of the variations of the Yellow Face title out in the world don’t negate its originality, but rather highlights the prevalence of the racial issues and themes they all tackle.
Published on October 2, 2024
Words by Janvi Sai
Janvi Sai is a New York City-based culture writer. She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University.