Song of a Reformed Headhunter

On GA's strong recommendation, PN and I watched David Henry Hwang's new play Soft Power at the Public Theater on November 2. It was a very clever, even mind-bending, re-write of The King and I , with a Chinese producer playing the part of a counselor to Hilary Clinton. Some of the dualism depicted by the play were too crude for my taste, such as the opposition between American individualism and Chinese family duty, but it was still fun to see Chinese political culture presented as a viable competing ideology, in some cases, superior to that of the USA. Since right at the start the play criticized the use of the Broadway musical as a vehicle for American soft power, the ending extolling the virtues of American democracy must be viewed with the intended ambiguity. If we felt the appeal of American ideals, we also knew that we were being put upon. In this way, Hwang had his cake and ate it. The party was also about the wonderful number of Asian American actors on stage. They acted...

Last night I had a very enjoyable evening watching a staged reading of Damon Chua's new play Optimism . Written and workshopped during his Emerging Writers Residency at The Public Theater, the play weaves together two different American eras--the 1964 New York World's Fair and early 1980s Wall Street--in an intricate and telling fashion, dramatizing the story of the American dream from the point of view of a young Chinese American, who grew up in Flushing, Queens. The actors, directed by Rebecca Taichman, were all terrific: Tina Benko, Bernardo Cubria, Sanjit De Silva, Karen Huie, Marc Damon Johnson, Peter Kim and Mariko Nakasone Parker. I hope some theater company will pick up the play and give it a full-fledged production. * april twilight advancing deadline for final proofs