My Variety Review: David Henry Hwang/Jeanine Tesori's 'Soft Power'
The “culture-clash musical” is a familiar template, in which a white American protagonist — waving the flag of individuality, optimism and freedom — trumps and tramps over the complexities of that which is foreign, challenging or “other.” David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s “Soft Power,” the new “play with a musical” at Off Broadway’s Public Theater, upends that form — and our expectations — in a thrilling, moving and revolutionary way. You may never look at an American musical the same way again.
In Hwang’s very personal expression of cultural estrangement and connection, “Soft Power” does more than simply come to terms with personal identity — it’s looking at America’s identity, too. It also miraculously manages to be subversive as well as funny, touching and thoroughly entertaining. “Soft Power” deserves to be fast-tracked to a larger stage, where its sweep, smarts and 20-piece orchestra can be presented in what the piece itself refers to as a “big, big show.”
“Soft Power” at first begins as a small, small one, in which an entertainment producer from Shanghai, Xue Xing (Conrad Ricamora, in a star-making performance), tries to enlist a character referred to as DHH (Francis Jue, playing the role of Hwang’s theatrical avatar) to write a new musical for the Chinese audience.
But the playwright soon discovers that they don’t see the proposed show in quite the same way. The project — with a title that translates in English to “Stick with Your Mistake” — doesn’t adhere to the spirit of the American musical, says DHH, especially not with the ending Xue insists on, which has the hero dutifully returning to his unhappy marriage to save face instead of following his heart.