Soft Power
By David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori
What begins as a comedy set in 2016, suddenly jumps into the future, where the scene we just witnessed has been mythologized as the basis of a beloved Chinese musical. A Chinese executive finds himself falling in love with a good-hearted American leader, as the power balance between their two nations shifts, and a new world order arrives. Soft Power imagines what the world -- and the musical -- might become once China gains international cultural dominance, or “soft power.” A Center Theatre Group/Public Theater co-commission, and the first collaboration between Hwang and Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), Soft Power premiered in May 2018 at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre, before traveling to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. It won six 2019 LA Ovation Awards, including Best Production of a Musical.
Soft Power made its New York premiere at The Public Theater, September 24 - November 10, 2019. Among other recognition, it received four Outer Critics Circle Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.