Photo Flash: Asia Society And The Santa Fe Opera Present David Henry Hwang And Huang Ruo's M. BUTTERFLY Opera Working Rehearsal

Asia Society's inaugural Contemporary Art Triennial of Asia, in partnership with the Santa Fe Opera, kicked off its pre-opening programming on Nov 20, 2019 with a sold-out exclusive world preview of the much anticipated new opera M. Butterfly.

Executive Chair of the Art Triennial, Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and her husband, Oscar Tang, a trustee of Asia Society, hosted a pre-performance reception for a delegation of board members from the Santa Fe Opera at the Asia Society in New York. Many board members from the Met Opera and Asia Society, including Betsy Cohen, Met Opera Treasurer and Asia Society Vice Chair, and her husband Ed Cohen, the President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic Deborah Borda, Met Opera's Assistant General Manager Diane Zola, and President of the Juilliard School, Damian Woetzel, were also in attendance.

Read more at Broadway World

Odds & Ends: New Musical Soft Power Will Receive Original Cast Album & More

New Musical Soft Power Will Receive Original Cast Album
The cheered new musical Soft Power, which recently concluded a twice-extended run at off-Broadway's Public Theater, will be preserved on an original cast recording, Ghostlight Records announced today. Featuring a book and lyrics by David Henry Hwang and music/additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori, the musical centers on a Chinese executive who is visiting America and falls in love with a good-hearted U.S. leader. The musical's cast was led by Alyse Alan Louis, Conrad Ricamora, Billy Bustamante, Kendyl Ito, Francis Jue, Austin Ku, Raymond J. Lee, Jaygee Macapugay, Daniel May, Paul HeeSang Miller, Geena Quintos, Trevor Salter, Kyra Smith, Emily Stillings, Emily Trumble, Jon Hoche, Kristen Faith Oei and John Yi. The cast album will be released in spring 2020.

Read more at Broadway.com

David Henry Hwang and The Democracy Project at Federal Hall

Guggenheim’s Spring 2020 Works & Process Series to Preview Revivals of West Side Story and Company, Intimate Apparel Opera, More.

The Guggenheim has unveiled its slate of offerings for the spring 2020 Works & Process Series, including a sneak peek at the upcoming Broadway revivals of West Side Story (directed by Ivo van Hove) and the Marianne Elliott-helmed Company. 

In addition, a February performance will highlight the new chamber opera adaptation of Intimate Apparel from Lynn Nottage (Sweat) and Ricky Ian Gordon (Morning Star). A moderated panel ahead of the premiere of The Metropolitan Opera’s Agrippina will provide insights from the production by the creative team and cast.

Read more at Playbill

Inside the Making of the Deeply Meta Choreography for Off-Broadway’s Soft Power

Alyse Alan Louis and the Cast of Soft Power (Joan Marcus).

Tony-nominated choreographer Sam Pinkleton shares the YouTube videos, dance labs, and rehearsal room tactics that built the flashy old-school style for the musical within a play.

To say Sam Pinkleton’s process of choreographing Soft Power was unconventional would be an understatement. Then again, when has Pinkleton, a Tony nominee for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, ever been conventional? And yet, he packs the dance in the Public Theater’s new “play within a musical” with gobs of conventional musical theatre movement.

That’s because Soft Power is a subversive, ambitious new piece of theatre using American musical tradition to question cultural appropriation, the relationship between East and West, and democracy’s worth. The satire follows the fictional David Henry Hwang, who is writing the book to an American-style musical set to premiere in China, and the Chinese producing executive Xue Xíng, who wants him to make that musical more Chinese. When David is stabbed, he enters a dream state where he instead writes a musical about the run up to and immediate aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election. We enter that musical world, a show in which Chinese newcomer Xue Xíng tries to teach Hillary Clinton about democracy (much like, say, Mrs. Anna teaches the King of Siam about ruling his East Asian kingdom).

Read more at Playbill

Edison High to stage ‘Tarzan’ on Nov. 22-23

RICHMOND — The King of the Jungle will swing into action at Edison High School when “Tarzan” hits the stage.

The school’s vocal music department will stage two performances of the musical in the auditorium on Nov. 22-23 under the direction of Dani Carroll. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts 7:30 p.m., while tickets cost $5 for students and $8 for adults.

The play was originally produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions with music and lyrics by Phil Collins and the book by David Henry Hwang.

Read more at The Weirton Daily Times

Photo Flash: George Takei Stopped by SOFT POWER at The Public

Conrad Ricamora who plays Oliver in the ABC Series "How To Get Away With Murder" has been jetting back and forth across the country filming the final season of the show and also starring in the new musical "Soft Power" written by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori at The Public Theater in NY. Over the weekend, an old friend, George Takei stopped by to see the show and congratulate him backstage along with Playwright David Henry Hwang and the cast.

See more at Broadway World

Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lippa and More Attended 'And the Tony Award Goes To…Celebrating TheatreWorks at 50'

Emmy, Grammy, and Tony-winning composer Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked," "Pippin," Disney's "Pocahontas", DreamWorks's "The Prince of Egypt") performed "For Good" from Wicked at "And the Tony Award Goes to...Celebrating TheatreWorks at 50," paying tribute to TheatreWorks Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley.

Stars of stage and screen, playwrights, composers, and supporters of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley came together Saturday, November 2, 2019 to celebrate the acclaimed regional theatre at And the Tony Award Goes To...Celebrating TheatreWorks at 50, a once-in-a-lifetime event honoring the company's half-century and its 2019 Regional Theatre Tony® Award. Some 480 guests attended extraordinary event which raised nearly $800,000 for TheatreWorks marking it the most attended and most successful fundraiser in the company's history. Guests appropriately gathered in the heart of Silicon Valley at Mountain View's Computer History Museum for cocktails, dinner, and a lively auction, then proceeded to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, where a stellar array of TheatreWorks alumni returned to pay tribute to its history through words and music.

Also on hand were Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and American Theatre Wing chair David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Aida, Soft Power), and Drama Desk and Emmy Award winner, multiple Tony nominee Željko Ivanek (Damages, Madam Secretary, Cloud Nine, The Pillowman), who offered heartfelt remarks highlighting their long relationships with TheatreWorks. Tony nominated Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party, The Addams Family, Big Fish) also received an ovation as he performed selections from his musicals developed at TheatreWorks. Broadway composer Paul Gordon, another Tony nominee (Jane Eyre, Daddy Long Legs, Jane Austen's EMMA, Being Earnest) who has debuted several hit productions at TheatreWorks, introduced a song from the upcoming holiday production of his Pride and Prejudice-which will mark TheatreWorks's 70th world premiere-performed by its leading lady, Mary Mattison.

Read more at Broadway World

Conrad Ricamora Is Ready to Be a Leading Man

Conrad Ricamora in rehearsal for the "Soft Power." (Photo by Joan Marcus. Photographed at New 42nd Street Studios.)

Why is he doing ‘Soft Power’ in New York while filming ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ in Los Angeles? Because he finally gets to play the hero.

In the early 2000s, actor Conrad Ricamora was playing a Chinese character in a local community theatre production of Anything Goes. During the first week of rehearsal, the director asked him, “Can you be more Chinese?” Ricamora is half Filipino, half white.

Starring in Soft Power at the Public Theater (through Nov. 17). A new musical by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, Ricomara also starred in Soft Power last year in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He plays Xuē Xíng, a Chinese entertainment producer who wants David Henry Hwang (played by Francis Jue) to write a musical about China that can play on Broadway. The country is after soft power, something America has in spades, which Xuē defines as “our ideas, inventions, culture,” which can “change the way people think.”

Read more at American Theatre

M. Butterfly [SOLD OUT]

Exclusive working rehearsal presented with the Santa Fe Opera.

Asia Society and the Santa Fe Opera’s 2020 Season proudly present the exclusive working rehearsal of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang's new opera, M. Butterfly. Based on Hwang’s 1988 Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer-Prize finalist Broadway play, M. Butterfly is the story of Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat who carried on a 20-year love affair with Song Liling, a Peking opera star with an astonishing secret that leads to Gallimard's professional and personal ruin. The story’s many parallels with Puccini’s well-known Madama Butterfly are echoed in the new opera’s music, composed by the celebrated young Chinese American composer Huang Ruo. With Kangmin Justin Kim (countertenor) as Song Liling and David Bizic (baritone) as Rene Gallimard.

Read more at Asia Society

SEEING MYSELF ONSTAGE

In light of the show’s focus on Asian-American representation, we asked the company of Soft Power when was the first time they saw themselves represented on stage.

I honestly don't know that I have ever truly felt represented on stage before Soft Power. In other shows that I've seen or even been in, there's usually an element of otherness in those representations--whether it's portraying Asians as foreigners, as historical characters, and/or tokenism.

Read more at The Ensemblist

In ‘Soft Power,’ Hillary Clinton Sings and Dances to Keep Democracy Alive

Alyse Alan Louis as Hillary Clinton in 'Soft Power,' running at The Public Theater.

Joan Marcus

David Henry Hwang’s “play with a musical” investigates why we’re addicted to our political system — even if it nearly kills us.

“Musicals can be very tricky,” Jeanine Tesori explains. “Because when you deliver something and you put a beautiful string section underneath it, it sways you. It sways you because of the physics of music, and the overtone series and the ways that music is embedded inside the science of being alive.”

Read more at Rolling Stone Magazine

American theatre NYC roundup

Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, currently running at the Public Theater through Nov. 17 ($100). In this send-up of The King and I, a Chinese entertainment producer meets Hillary Clinton and teaches her a thing or two about politics.

Read more at American Theater

Hard talk: Broadway gets tough on America in crisis

In an era of uncertainty and anxiety, New York theatre is shunning its obsession with private lives to throw a powerful spotlight on politics.

It used to be argued that British drama is driven by a fascination with public affairs and its American counterpart by a preoccupation with private lives. On the evidence of a week’s intensive theatregoing in New York, I would suggest that hoary generalisation has been blown to smithereens. At a time of potential impeachment, political polarisation and profound uncertainty, American theatre seems to be heavily engaged with the wider world.

Soft Power at the Public Theater addresses the nation’s ills with the breezy bounce you expect in a musical. It has a strong pedigree in that the play and lyrics are by David Henry Hwang (M Butterfly) and the score by Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change). The framework is complicated and derives from a street stabbing in which Hwang was the victim. But what we see is a fantasy musical that he imagines in his fevered post-op dreams and that offers a parodic inversion of The King and I. Instead of a British governess lecturing a Siamese monarch we see a Chinese film producer, Xue Xing, arriving in America and offering a lesson in civics and good governance to Hillary Clinton.

Read more at The Guardian

Why David Henry Hwang defends theater’s Michael Ritchie and ‘bravest act of producing’

I can only relate my own experience as an artist working with Center Theatre Group and its artistic director, Ritchie, on the commissioning and development of our recent show, “Soft Power,” which premiered at CTG in 2018 and just opened at the Public Theater in New York. In 2014, Ritchie offered me a commission and production slot for the Mark Taper Forum, which I gratefully accepted. While commissions are nice enough, a guaranteed slot represents real faith in an artist.

Read more at Los Angeles Times

ATCA Critics Join Award Winners At NYC Conference

What will two Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwrights have to say to each other in a room full of critics about creating drama based on real-life characters and events?

Tony Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang ("Soft Power"), playwright Jeremy O. Harris ("Slave Play"), culture critic Soraya Nadia McDonald, playwright Nambi E. Kelley ("Native Son") and playwright Leah Nanako Winkler ("God Said") will speak on "writing with cultural awareness."

Read more at Broadway World

10 must-see Off-Broadway shows

hese 10 newly-opened Off-Broadway shows are worth looking into.

While many new Broadway shows have opened and will continue to open through the end of the fall, this is also an especially bountiful time for Off-Broadway, with some of the most well-known not-for-profit companies presenting ambitious and diverse productions.

Below are 10 newly-opened Off-Broadway shows that are worth looking into, including three being produced just by the Public Theater.

‘Soft Power’

“The King and I” gets mixed up with China and Hillary Clinton in David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly”) and Jeanine Tesori’s (“Fun Home”) wild new musical in which an Asian-American playwright is asked to write a Broadway musical for Shanghai. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., publictheater.org. Through Nov. 17.

Read more at AM New York

Playwright David Henry Hwang: ‘It’s great being the first, but then the expectations are impossible’

While David Henry Hwang appreciated the acclaim that came with being the first Asian-American playwright to have a show produced on Broadway, with M Butterfly in 1988, looking back, he says it put him in a difficult position.

“There are obviously great things about getting to lead some kind of breakthrough or being the first,” Hwang says. “But the downside is that there’s an impossible set of expectations that you’re then expected to carry, too. If there’s only one Asian-American or Native American playwright, it’s like that person is expected to speak for the entire community. It’s just not possible for any one individual to speak for the whole of an ethnic group, a racial group, a community, a nation… anything.”

Read more at The Stage

Theatre Forward Hosts Creative Conversation & Cocktails in NYC

On October 18, 2019, Theatre Forward, a non-profit arts organization based in New York City, held an evening of Creative Conversation & Cocktails with Special Guests David Henry Hwang, Tony-winning playwright of M. Butterfly, Author of Soft Power, Center Theatre Group/Public Theater, and Douglas C. Baker, Producing Director, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles.

Read more at Broadway World

New Tracy Letts, David Henry Hwang Shows Are Among Our 5 Faves This Week

We also recommend the return of a long-running parody revue of Broadway shows.

With so much great theater in New York City, you might need a little help deciding what to see this week. We've got you covered!

Here you'll find a list of standout shows that our TheaterMania critics consider especially worth your time. They're all top productions that you definitely won't want to miss.

Read more at Theater Mania

Bowen Yang, Jeremy O. Harris, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and More Celebrate Soft Power

David Henry Hwang's new musical-within-a-play is now open at the Public Theater.

Soft Power celebrated its off-Broadway opening last night at the Public Theater where the production began performances on September 24. Take a look below at photos from the evening's celebration.

Read more at Theater Mania.