David Henry Hwang’s effective new musical Soft Power suggests a triangulation of the patriotism of Hamilton and the east-meets-west of Pacific Overtures, recently produced by Signature Theatre. However, it’s set in the here and now of strained USA-China relations and the two most recent election cycles. The text of the play explicitly acknowledges that it is a response to another well-loved musical, The King and I, Hwang working in a familiar groove.
“Welcome to America” explodes in your face, with the least sinister figure being a silent Times Square Elmo puppet. It sets up the arrival two songs later of Hillary Clinton (the electrifying Grace Yoo), an Asian American in a blonde wig. Clinton’s music and movement is a pastiche of Meredith Wilson,* Reno Sweeney, Evita Peron, Michael Bennett, John Kander, and Stephen Sondheim. Her 11:00 number (actually a 9:15, in this 90-minute play) is “Democracy,” which opens with a tremendous preach and closes with a scrim drop from the flies that will have most Americans losing their shit, in a good way.
“Happy Enough” (my notes say “tone song,” which perhaps better captures the spirit) is a lovely duet for Clinton and ex-pat Xūe Xíng (Daniel May), intimately exploring the nuances of Chinese pronunciation, with a slightly forced joke involving an English vulgarism.
- Soft Power, book and lyrics by David Henry Hwang, music and additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Ethan Heard, Signature Theatre, Arlington, Va.
*Clinton’s repetition of the lyric “Problems” also brings to mind Laurie Anderson’s “Only an Expert,” but that’s just me.