Interview: David Henry Hwang on the cultural changes that led to Yellow Face appearing on Broadway

In the 1990s, playwright David Henry Hwang famously protested the casting of white British actor Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian pimp named “The Engineer” in the Broadway premiere of Miss Saigon. After Miss Saigon Hwang – already a Tony winner for M. Butterfly — responded with a play entitled Nominal valuea farce about two Asian-American actors who want to protest against the Broadway premiere of a new musical entitled The real Fu Manchuwith a white actor in the leading role, at the “Imperialist Theatre”.

Nominal value lasted a total of eight previews on Broadway before it was canceled. And how did Hwang finally respond? By writing another play about the experience. This one had better results: At its premiere at the Public Theater in 2007 Yellow face won an Obie and was a Pulitzer finalist.

In Yellow facea playwright named DHH writes a play called Nominal valuefreely inspired by the controversy surrounding Miss Saigonand accidentally casts a white actor in one of the Asian lead roles. When DHH notices the mistake, he convinces the actor to use a different name and describe himself as being of Jewish-Siberian descent. Naturally, chaos ensues.

More than a decade after its premiere, the real DHH returns Yellow faceagain directed by Leigh Silverman. Leading the cast as DHH on stage is Daniel Dae Kim from the TV series Lostand stage veteran Francis Jue, reprising a role as DHH's father HYH that he originally played downtown. This time, the screen is bigger: They're on Broadway at the Todd Haimes Theatre at Roundabout.

The DHH is rightly excited about the opportunity to once again dedicate itself to this work and also to several other works that are emerging at the same time.

For the sake of clarity, this conversation has been shortened and edited.

Recently you have revisited several pieces from different phases of your career: Ainadamar for the Metropolitan Opera, 2007 Yellow face on Broadway and 2019 Gentle power for the Signature Theatre in DC. What is that like for you as an author?
I have had this experience before; I have seen some other works revived. I think what is different now about Yellow face is that for a long time, if you wanted to bring a play about Asians to Broadway, it had to be set in Asia. Even with my other Broadway shows, with the exception of Flower Drum Songa musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, were not American stories.

The idea that the culture has changed to the point where these once esoteric topics are now at the center of our discourse is very satisfying and says a lot about the changes that have occurred.

This role in Yellow face is different for Daniel Dae Kim – I think everyone is used to seeing him on Losta kind of action hero.
People will be surprised at how good a comedic actor Daniel is. And there's an interesting convergence here. Not only is Daniel a great actor, but he's also known as an activist and an Asian American role model. These are qualities that the character of DHH has, and then the play tries to undermine. A lot of the humor comes from this character trying to protect his reputation after making a big mistake. It's pretty funny to see Daniel, who has this activist persona, struggle with what it means to lose that and cover up his mistake.

The only cast member returning from the original production is Francis Jue, who plays HYH, the father of the DHH character.
I have known Francis since his first job after school, the original Broadway production of M. Butterfly. He came in as an understudy and then played the role in some of the national tours. I have grown with Francis and we have grown together as theatre artists. When he played HYH in 2007 he was actually a little too young for the role but he played it so well. Now he is the right age and so brings that level of maturity and dignity that is important for the role. He reminds me even more of my father now.

Gentle power is a musical about politics, and the timing is even more delicate now than it was five years ago when it premiered. Did you look at it differently when you and Jeanine Tesori were preparing this revised version for Signature?
It is certainly true that scheduling the play in Washington before the 2024 election was intentional on Signature's part. It was exciting for us. Most importantly, Jeanine and I tried to address things that we felt were still confusing for an audience from the 2019 version. It was interesting that even in the time between rehearsals starting and the premiere at Signature, the political landscape changed. Biden dropped out and Harris became the [Democratic] candidate [for President]. I think audiences are experiencing the play differently and with more hope and exuberance than they did two months ago. It's fascinating to what extent the reception of the play is influenced by the real-life political landscape.

Both works have autobiographical elements, with characters named DHH. Do you see a thematic connection between the DHH in Yellow face and the DHH of Gentle power?
I haven't really thought about DHH dislike and how the two characters relate to each other. They seem to be different manifestations. I know that when we work on Gentle powerJeanine Tesori and Leigh Silverman kept telling me that I had to take my character more seriously than in Yellow face. So that's the difference. But I don't know the connection between the two versions, other than that they're both theoretically versions of me.

Hopefully I won't do that again. I thought Yellow face I had no intention of doing so. And then, in Gentle powerwith the stabbing in the neck and all, I thought I might as well name him after myself.

There is a level of discomfort and vulnerability that I find both unsettling and exciting. Perhaps, as far as Asian Americans are concerned, we are sometimes raised to be more respectful and reserved. Perhaps taking up space and asserting your presence is important, which leads to the DHH character.

And I am quite satisfied since the original Yellow facethat this technique seems to be becoming more and more common, whether it's in the plays of Qui Nguyen, Lauren Yee or even Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. I hope it means that people saw the show and thought, “Oh, that's not so bad. I can do that too.”