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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Soft Power
Creators David Henry Hwang (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music and additional lyrics) have been working on this show for years; an earlier version was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Changes in the international situation–and in Hwang's own life–meant thoroughly overhauling the focus of the play, which remains a surrealistic consideration of how the populations of two very different countries could (perhaps) find some common ground. The time is 2016; Xue Xíng (Daniel May), an executive with a Chinese corporation, has come to New York City to produce a Broadway musical that would present Chinese culture to the American public in an unthreatening way. (His favorite musical is The King and I, with its British schoolteacher in Siam widening the perspective of the country's 19th-century king.) He invites DHH (Steven Eng), a stand-in for Hwang, to participate in the project, but the playwright isn't interested until after he suffers a traumatic event and his feverish brain conjures up this very musical. As with The King and I, the musical-within-the-musical boils down international relations to two people: Xue Xíng himself and candidate Hillary Clinton (Grace Yoo), who at the time of the action was expected to win the 2016 presidential election. They meet at a political rally in a McDonald's, a highlight of Billy Bustamante's choreography and Chika Shimizu's scenic design: Helen Q. Huang costumes Hillary as a little bit Eva Peron, a little bit Wonder Woman, while ensemble members dance around her with enormous foam French fries. Soon they are a couple (including a nod to Rodgers and Hammerstein's sublime "Shall We Dance?"), until something so unlikely as to seem impossible changes the trajectory of both the personal and political plotlines. Tesori's music propels the action with both American and Chinese grace notes. The score incorporates emotional ballads, songs of despair and compromise, and rousing political numbers, all packed into a sleek 85-minute run time without intermission. Music director Angie Benson and nine other musicians provide strong support from their platform above the stage. Soft Power runs through September 15, 2024, at Signature Theatre, MAX Theater, 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington VA. For tickets and information, please call 703-820-9771 or 1-800-955-5566 or visit www.signature-theatre.org. Book and lyrics by David Henry Hwang Cast:
Randy Ray and others: Eymard Cabling |
