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Alright, here is my LONG awaited Soft Power rundown thread. Tw: mentions of stabbing, mentions of guns, and mentions of racism towards Chinese people and Chinese Americans https://twitter.com/bwaymaura/status/1265301853731983360">https://twitter.com/bwaymaura...
Soft Power is a ‘musical-within-a-play’ with book and lyrics written by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face) and music by Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Fun Home). The show is told in two parts- the first act is a play, the second act is a musical
I will be shortening David’s name to ‘DHH’ in this thread to save character space and I should mention that I haven’t had the opportunity to see this show so some of the little details might not be full correct but I did my best. Also the show is a semi-autobiographical about DHH
Soft Power tells the story of Xué Xīng (played by Conrad Ricamora), a Chinese producer, who comes to America to convince David Henry Hwang (played by Francis Jue) to write the book for a musical based off a Chinese movie.
Xué Xīng, DHH, and a woman named Zoe (played by Alyse Alan Louis) go to see the revival of The King and I. At the show, Xué Xīng meets Hillary Clinton and makes, quote, “a very deep connection with her.”
Later that night, DHH is stabbed and goes into a coma. Act 1 ends
Later that night, DHH is stabbed and goes into a coma. Act 1 ends
Act 2 starts and David is still in his coma. What we see is a fever dream of his coma where Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election and China stepped up and became the main super power in the world
This act satirizes the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (mostly The King and I- Hillary and Xué Xīng waltz like in ‘Shall We Dance?’) and stereotypes Americans much like Americans have stereotyped Chinese people in the past
Hillary has a rally in a McDonald’s, there is a whole number called ‘Election Night’ where they poke fun at how stupid the electoral college is and at the end of it, Trump supporters storm the White House chanting ‘Make America Great Again’ in a scene which satirizes Miss Saigon.
Speaking of Trump, to my knowledge, he is not referenced by name in the show but is instead called “The guy who hates China” Thought I should make that clear
There is a whole song called ‘Good Guy with a Gun’ which has the line ‘That’s why no American would throw away his gun’. All of this comes from an experience the real DHH said he had in his unconsciousness.
The show ends with DHH waking up and Xué Xīng telling him, “Dà nàn bù sǐ, bì yǒu hòu fú“ (i wish i had a translation in hànzì), "If somehow you survive when you should have died, good fortune will follow." The show ends with the cast singing a reprise of Democracy
This wasn’t a perfect overview of Soft Power, especially for act 2 but I really wanted to give you guys just what this show is about because it’s so special and so important
The entire cast (except for Alyse Alan Louis and her understudy) are all Asian or Asian American and in an industry which has very little of that kind of representation, it’s refreshing to it on stage in such big numbers.
This show also focuses what it mean to be Chinese in America with the experience of DHH (the character) and how he struggles with his Asian American identity and he says repeatedly during the show, “I am not Chinese.” and details the racism his father went through
This show also has a FULL orchestra and has such a grandiose nature. If you’re not on board with this show yet, at least listen to ‘Democracy (Reprise)’
anyway, maura out and stan soft power!
