Paulanne Simmons
"Yellow Face"
There’s an interesting and moving play somewhere in David Henry Hwang’s "Yellow Face," but it is drowned in so many authorial ticks and turnarounds it would take a sleuth with Holmesian ability to find it. The comedy/farce/drama was originally produced in 2007 at the Public Theater, directed by Leigh Silverman. Now the play has opened at Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre, again directed by Silverman. The play features a diverse ensemble cast playing a host of characters, including Daniel Dae Kim as DHH (aka David Henry Hwang); Ryan Eggold as Marcus, a white actor whom DHH mistakenly casts after convincing himself Marcus is the son of a Siberian Jew; Greg Keller as the Reporter whose name is withheld for legal reasons; and Francis Jue as HYH Hwang’s father, whose real name is Henry Y. Hwang. At its beginning, "Yellow Face" is presented as a documentary, recounting the various casting controversies around the transfer of the musical, Miss Saigon, from the West End to Broadway. Hwang, to his credit, does not portray himself as a hero, Rather, he is vacillating and self-interested. Soon the play skips over to DHH’s own theatrical creation, Face Value (an actual Hwang play which closed in previews on Broadway in the early 1990s), written in reaction to plays that feature white actors in Asian parts. Face Value was far from successful, but still worse, DHH’s unfortunate casting choice results in Marcus adapting the identity of an Asian. Marcus plagues DHH with goodwill for the rest of Yellow Face. He even gets Hwang’s former girlfriend, Leah (Shannon Tyo). Throughout, DHH’s father, NYH, appears on and off as a mostly comic figure offering unwanted advice to his son. But the farce turns tragic when NYH, the C.E.O. of Far East National Bank is accused of money laundering for the Central Bank of China. NYH is a proud American, and at first he is convinced he can fight the accusation and win. He even welcomes the notoriety. But he soon learns he is sadly mistaken. DHH’s interview with an unnamed Times reporter does not do his father’s cause much good. But it does allow Hwang to reveal the (surprise!) closet racism of the media. And thus the show ends happily on the comfortable conclusion that Asians, like all minorities, are victims of White American racism. What happened to NYH is serious and deserves to have more than a secondary role in the play. NYH is the one who aspires and is disappointed. He is the one whose dreams were destroyed. But apparently, Hwang thinks his grievances are more important. What is true? What is fiction? Even a dig into Wikipedia may not help. Hwang is a gifted writer, and there are many very amusing satirical and ironic moments in "Yellow Face." But Hwang’s mix of the political and the personal, heavily garnished with pure fantasy is not easily digested.
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