Review: Daniel Dae Kim Unmasks as a Playwright in 'Yellow Face'

To write oneself in one's own play one has to wear a very curious mask. If it's flattering, is it honest? If it's honest, why bother?

These questions, both as artistic choices and issues of social identity, are powerfully and hilariously engaged in David Henry Hwang's revival of “Yellow Face,” which opens Tuesday at the Todd Hyams Theater. The answers are deliberately ambiguous. On the one hand, this roundabout production directed by Leigh Silverman (as was the 2007 original), stars the highly likable and handsome Daniel Dae Kim as Hwang's stand-in, called DHH. On the other hand, this DHH is a worm.

A similarly trashy story that needs a ton of exposition to get its way. DHH, like Hubong Huang, won a 1988 Tony Award for his Broadway debut, “M. Butterfly.” His 1993 follow-up, “Face Value,” won only notoriety. Closing before its official New York opening, it was nicknamed “M. Türkiye.”

“Face Value” was Hwang's theatrical response to the “Miss Saigon” controversy, in which producer Cameron Mackintosh, having imported that megamusical from London in 1991, wanted to import its star Jonathan Pryce as well. But because Price was white and her character was Eurasian, protests against the casting began. Nevertheless, the show went on — and on — with Mackintosh dismissing the dispute as “a tempest in an Oriental teacup.”

Hence “Face Value”: an elaborate farce in “imperialist theater” about a white actor playing the title role in a musical called “The Real Fu Manchu.”

“Yellowface” recounts that history in a style that is less farce than irony. As DHH refers to events and articles, we see them enacted or quoted by the protean supporting cast. It's not irrelevant that, like Price, these actors fit roles without regard to gender or race — or rather, deliberately mismatch expectations. Shannon Taio stars (among others) Cameron Mackintosh and Gish Jane; Marinda Anderson stars as Jane Krakowski and Al Gore; Kevin Del Aguila stars Ed Koch and BD Wang. All wonderful inventors.

Hence “yellow face”. Leaving the actual record behind, Hwang now envisions a “face value” remake In this alternate history, the lead role of an Asian American protester, not played by Wong as in real life, is played by Marcus G. Played by an unknown actor named Dahlman.

Dahlman is, as DHH claims, and as beautifully played by Ryan Eggold, “a straight, masculine Asian leading man.” Except for the Asian part. Dahlman is obviously white.

Having tamped its explosives so tightly, the play now explodes into a thousand fantastic paradoxes as DHH becomes progressively more ridiculous. Fearing exposure, she encourages Marcus to change his last name to something more ambiguous and recast his ambiguous ethnicity as possibly Asian. In doing so, he steps well beyond Mackintosh's sin.

But one smart thing about “yellowface,” aside from authentic self-deprecation, is that the more hopelessly convoluted and thus funny it becomes the more serious and thus hurtful it becomes. Questions of identity, considered cultural issues in the first half, become personal and political in the second half.

The switch is to Hwang's father, a prominent banker in California, named HYH. In a masterful performance by Francis Xue, he is first an exuberant champion of the American dream: success in a country where anyone can be, at heart, Gary Cooper. But when HYH became the object of congressional overreach (and racist suspicion) during the Chinese banking probe in the late 1990s, he was crushed.

While DHH himself was drawn into the story, Greg Keller played his skivish in an interview with a New York Times reporter, the drama itself unmasked. Identity is not what a person looks like; It is only what others see unchanged.

I don't remember seeing the 2007 production feeling the weight of that insight, or for that matter, the levity of the jokes. Part of the improvement in this revival is, no doubt, the result of cuts, fine tuning and rewritten scenes. Eliminating breaks helps too; The two parts of the story are not as distinct as sauce. And there's something to be said for a Broadway house that, when a tough play is suited for it, responds by giving it room to breathe.

There's also something to be said for Kim's modesty in admitting that the drama is ultimately not DHH, but her father. Seeing him suspended in Jue is moving in itself and smart for effect.

It helps that Zooey is now 61 years old. When she played the role in 2007, in her mid-40s, she deservedly won an OB even though she was too young for the part. Now he's old enough to really embody the tragedy of disillusionment in the comedy of identity — I hope, too.

yellow face
Through Nov. 24 at the Todd Hyams Theater in Manhattan; roundabouttheatre.org. Running time: 1 hour and 45 minutes.