If you’re not immediately familiar with the name David Henry Hwang, you’re likely familiar with his work. The legendary playwright has made waves for his writing and advocacy, becoming the first Asian American playwright to win a Tony Award for his play M. Butterfly while also facing public backlash for his protests of the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian character in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon in the 1990s.
This experience led to the development of his play Face Value, which closed after eight previews on Broadway in 1993. Though Hwang describes the experience as emotional and even traumatic, the thought of a play centered around mistaken racial identity was a concept he couldn’t get out of his head.
“Coming out of the whole Miss Saigon controversy, I felt like ‘Oh, I really need to process all this,’” Hwang says. “Really the notion of a comedy of mistaken racial identity was really a way to interrogate the notion of race itself in service of the larger question, ‘Well, how do we move forward as a society?”
His response – and path to ultimately process these questions – came in the form of his next play, Yellow Face, which was recently brought to Broadway in late 2024 and was recorded through support from CAAM to air on PBS’ Great Performances on May 16 and will be streaming on the PBS website and app. But before that, San Francisco audiences can get a sneak peek during an in-person screening on CAAMFest’s Closing Night.
The show stems from Hwang’s own experiences, so much so that the central character is referred to as “DHH.” At the start of the show, DHH is seen protesting yellowface casting in Miss Saigon, but he ironically ends up making the same mistake himself by casting a white actor as an Asian character in one of his plays. Rather than admitting fault, DHH helps Marcus adopt a fabricated identity as “Marcus Gee,” claiming Siberian-Jewish heritage. Hilarity ensues as Marcus not only embraces his new identity, but becomes a well-known and respected activist in the Asian American community, prompting questions around identity and the roles we play in society.
The original play opened in 2007, and Hwang recalls that though the show was received well, he sensed a level of discomfort from the audience due to the fact that the play’s themes and central issues felt distinctly Asian American. “The issues at its heart were still relatively niche—they weren’t at the center of American popular discourse,” he explains.
It wasn’t until a fateful table read for Audible in 2023 – when Hwang found himself at a table with director Leigh Silverman and actor Daniel Dae Kim – that they realized it might be time to bring Yellow Face to modern audiences on Broadway. With Kim attached to star, Hwang got to work making a fair amount of changes on the script to cut down 30 minutes of material, add new characters, and ensure the play felt fresh and sharp for today’s audiences. When the show opened at Roundabout Theatre Company in September 2024, it was a different kind of reaction.
“It just felt funnier and more relevant,” he says. “When we were able to play to packed houses, when we got wonderful reviews, when audiences of all stripes were laughing and moved at the end, then we felt like our hope – that the culture had moved toward the play – that hope turned out to be correct.”
While Yellow Face is largely comedic and satirical in tone, it also contains deeply personal reflections – particularly in the second half of the show. Much of this stems from Hwang’s relationship with his father, Henry Y. Hwang, who becomes a central figure in the play. The real-life Henry was accused by The New York Times of laundering money for China, which is also explored at a pivotal moment of the play.
“My dad always wanted me to write a play about him,” Hwang shares. “When I began writing Yellow Face, my father was still alive. That first big father-son phone call scene has remained pretty constant through all versions of the play.” Over time, however, as Hwang dealt with his father’s passing during development, that relationship became even more central to the story. “When the show opened this time, I remember thinking, ‘Wherever Dad is looking down from, he’s probably really happy that he’s the favorite character in a Broadway show.’”
Casting of the show was also an intentional process that Hwang was cognizant of. Daniel Dae Kim plays DHH, while other cast members like Kevin Del Aguila (Actor A) and Marinda Anderson (Actor B) play other roles outside of their ethnicity. At one point, the show even pokes fun at this dynamic, as DHH says to a Latin actor playing an Asian role, “Asian parts should only ever be played by Asian actors,” to which the actor responds, “Um yeah?”.
This deliberate casting choice pushes boundaries while exploring evolving ideas about representation on stage. Hwang says, “In the 2007 [version], we had binary casting – Asian actors could play white roles but not vice versa. For this revival, we wanted to expand beyond that binary by including actors from diverse communities like Marinda who’s Black or Kevin who’s Latin.”
Yellow Face is not only distinct for its subject material but also because it comes with several potential firsts for Asian Americans, especially within the Broadway community. If Daniel Dae Kim gets nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, he will be the first AAPI recognized in that category ever. The show is also the first play in Broadway history where East Asian characters are portrayed as Americans, as opposed to being foreigners in overseas settings – something that Hwang is especially proud of given the rise of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic and increased hostility toward Asian Americans.
“Given the current political environment, it’s really important to widely share a work which asserts that AAPIs are Americans and that we are human beings who sometimes do foolish things, sometimes do wise things, and sometimes get to find redemption.”
Madeleine Fernando is a second-generation Asian American writer based out of New York City. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she is currently a public relations specialist and freelance writer.
