Recent and upcoming releases in TV and audio recording formats of four multi-award-nominated Broadway shows of the 2024-25 season are making performances of two plays available for viewing at home and the scores and songs of two musicals accessible for listening, if you weren’t able to make it to the theater to see them live, or if you loved them and can’t wait to revisit them again and again.
Yellow Face – A sidesplitting and thought-provoking Broadway revival of the 2007 quasi-autobiographical comedy by three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony winner David Henry Hwang (the first Asian American playwright to receive the award) starred Daniel Dae Kim as an Asian American playwright who protests “yellowface” casting in the musical Miss Saigon, only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play and then suffer the repercussions. The critically acclaimed show, for which Francis Jue has already received an Outer Critics Circle Award for his featured role as the playwright’s father, ran for a limited engagement with Roundabout Theatre Company through Sunday, November 24, 2024, at the Todd Haimes Theatre. A live stage performance was filmed for PBS that month, made its broadcast debut on Friday, May 16, and is available now through June 30, for free streaming on the PBS website and app, so be sure to see this hilarious and timely look at racial identity, artistic freedom, political correctness, and media frenzy while you still can.