Yellow Face.

"Yellow Face" at the Todd Haimes Theatre is a difficult play to review in many ways. David Henry Hwang has made himself the lead actor, and he fills the story this semi-autobiographical story with lots of real life people that were involved in the "Miss Saigon" musical ruckus. Even though Hwang is detailed about the occurrences that shrouded the 1991 Tony Award Musical, the play's bad guy is made up and the writer doesn't reveal this until the show's end. First produced in 2007 at The Public Theater, the play focuses more on the laughs than it did back at The Public.

In "Yellow Face", Hwang (Daniel Dae Kim) is writing "Face Value" in response to the yellow-face casting of Johnathan Pryce in his first Broadway debut of "Miss Saigon". Being the first Asian American to have a play produced on Broadway, Hwang had some clout in getting Cameron Mackintosh to cancel the production. Hwang was an important voice, until he wasn't any longer. The show opened and proceeded to win multiple Tony's.

In the audition for "Face Value", Hwang wants to cast Marcus. G. Dahlman (Ryan Eggold), but others think that he does not look Asian. To Hwang's dismay, he calls racist to "Stereotype" Asians as having a certain look and build. Where this scene was more serious at The Public, it plays here for pure laughs.

The play's best- written scenes take place between Hwang and his father (Francis Jue). Jue is delightful in his role as a successful banker in Los Angeles who prizes his success and the American dream above all else. As the founder of Far East National Bank, he came to America and worked pressing laundry. To himself, he is the quintessential American dream; he quotes both American actors as well as American singers (Sinatra and Jimmy Stewart are two of his favorites).

Director Leigh Silverman works well with the talented cast; the actors for the most part keep us entertained for the one hour forty five minutes. Silverman did a better job here than when she directed this show at The Public.Where The Public had an intermission, this show does not. Anita Yavich are very plain and uninspiring. Lap Chi Chu's lighting design ran from glam to edgy. Arnulfo Maldonado's sets were creative and the blending of the sets with the scene's melded well. For the most part, "Yellow Face" was a good play for the most part. (at the 55 minute mark till the hour-five minute point the show slowed up quite a bit).

Taken on its face value, Hwang makes some resonate points about typecasting and how things are done in the theater world. Hwang, however, omits many factual points in his body of work: while he quotes yahoo Republican Congressman verbatim, he leaves out that Mr. Hwang hired Tom Bradley, then the mayor of Los Angeles, as a consultant. Mr. Bradley had also received a loan from the bank and at the same time secured $2 million in city funds. Hwang tells the audience that America killed his fathers dream and virtually killed him; that he ended up cursing the country that made him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams.

When reporter Greg Keller asks Hwang pointed questions, he comes off like a villain... he portrays the reporter as having a distorted idea of Asian Americans. Like so many liberal-minded writers, Hwang turned the reporter in a antagonist. He paints the white male reporter as a hater, as does so many plays that lean into the PC today on Broadway.

Hwang borders on hypocrisy when dealing with the "Miss Saigon" issue. In M.Butterfly he casted a cis gender to play the spy and not a transgender. He also never credited the real writer of "M.Butterfly", NY Times writer Joyce Wadler who reported the actual affair. The 1993 nonfiction book "Liaison" was used a source material for M.Butterfly and Wadler was never credited in the show's Playbill.

Broadway, Tony awards, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Roommate, McNeal, M.Butterfly, Sunset Boulevard, Romeo and Juliet, The Outsiders.