Signature Theatre’s ‘Soft Power’ Sings and Stings (Review)
David Henry Hwang's musical satire "Soft Power" confronts America's political division with biting wit and romance.
Making use of his art to process the pain and confusion of a heinous physical attack, the David Henry Hwang depicted in the brilliantly funny musical Soft Power echoes the David Henry Hwang who wrote the book and lyrics for the show.
Jeanine Tesori, Tony winner for Fun Home and Kimberly Akimbo, composed the tuneful score, and additional lyrics, for the satire, which Hwang had originally conceived of as a “reverse The King and I.” The idea, as the M. Butterfly author explained to the audience on press night, was to have a Chinese person come to America, and, like Anna in The King and I, “teach an American ruler something important about civilizing their country.”
As the collaborators first got to work on Power, in the months leading up to the 2016 election, the ruler Hwang had in mind was Hillary Clinton, who would learn something about gun violence. But then, the fact that someone other than Clinton became POTUS altered the course of the plot, as did the real-life violent attack Hwang suffered in 2015 walking home from the grocery store in Brooklyn.
The random stabbing, perpetrated by an assailant never apprehended, coincided with a rash of violent assaults against Asians around the city, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the incident bled into the fiction Hwang was conceiving at the time.
Further developed for this Signature Theatre production, the resulting amalgamation of political satire, autobiography, musical fantasy, and old-fashioned romance is audacious and original, and realized with verve and class in Ethan Heard’s splendidly staged production.
Steven Eng, dryly funny if a bit stilted, portrays the fictional David Henry Hwang, or DHH, enlisted by producer Xue Xíng, well-played by Daniel May, to write a Broadway-style musical that promotes the beauty of China and Chinese culture. The intent is to wield the soft power of cultural diplomacy to engender good feelings toward China. But the writer doesn’t see the vision.
In a fast-paced tête-à-tête, staged like a two-nation summit over an office desk, DHH concludes, “Maybe America has nothing to learn from China.” Besides being offensive to Xue Xíng, the line hits at an underlying premise of Soft Power, that politics is infected with recalcitrance — parties are too stubbornly set in their positions to want to learn anything, even from their own mistakes.
DHH comes around, however, after he’s stabbed by a stranger and passes out on the street. Lying unconscious, he dreams up his ideal musical in which Xue Xíng comes to America with ambitions of mounting a Chinese musical on Broadway, and winds up meeting and falling in love with Hillary Clinton.
As delightfully portrayed by Grace Yoo, this is one lovable HRC. Her campaign number, “I’m With Her,” a spirited spin on The Music Man‘s “Ya Got Trouble,” has Hill hula-hooping and spinning plates with indefatigable people-pleasing brio, that soon leads into the tender romantic longing of “It Just Takes Time,” a duet with Xíng.
Billy Bustamante’s choreography cheekily references The King and I‘s “Shall We Dance” waltz, along with a West Side Story pas de deux, as the production nods throughout to the classic musicals inspiring DHH’s fever dream.
In the midst of the couple’s improbable dalliance, and the script’s combination of campy comedy and incisive commentary, Hwang and Tesori paint a haunting portrait of these polarized times. From Hillary staging a campaign rally at a McDonald’s, to the crowds of angry voters, and clever jabs at the U.S. voting system and electoral college, Soft Power captures the often chaotic tenor of political discourse in this country.
After Hillary loses her election, her voters all take off their rose-colored glasses, and a new leader, in the upbeat toe-tapper “Good Guy with a Gun,” ushers in a harsh reality where the American dream is supplanted by MAGA-fueled hate and anti-Asian violence.
Yet, Yoo is never funnier than as post-election loss Hillary, home licking her wounds, or out for a walk dressed like a ’50s romantic heroine in “Happy Enough.” Yoo and May make a dynamic, complementary pair, abetted all around by an ensemble who can wring big laughs from small moments or gestures, like Nicholas Yenson as conservative curmudgeon Holden Caulfield, or Chani Wereley in various roles.
Only in a few such moments does the company’s mastery of tone slip, as in a serious spoken-word section of “Good Guy with a Gun.” Otherwise, the top-notch performances, visual inventiveness — Chika Shimizu’s scenic design, lit wonderfully by Oliver Wason, has a field day with scale — and quick-witted book and songs, relay Hwang’s deeply personal musical fantasia with heart, and specificity about both Chinese and American culture.
There’s plenty to learn about our democratic election process from looking at how we screw it up. Or how other nations forgo the process altogether.
Soft Power (★★★★☆) runs through Sept. 15 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington, with AAPI Affinity Night on Aug. 20, and a Pride Night performance on Aug. 23. Tickets are $40 to $105. Call 703-820-9771, or visit www.sigtheatre.org.
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