By David Hoffman
Arlington, VA (The Hollywood Times) 8/31/24 – Well, Reader, here it is, the single most positive, most ardent, most favorable review of a new theatrical production I have ever written or expect to write in the future.
Soft Power, now showing at Signature Theater, the jewel in the crown of Northern Virginia professional theater, was in previews on August 6, and is scheduled to run for just six weeks through September 15. Pray that its run is extended, which to this nearly swooning reviewer seems highly likely!
But the avid theatergoer is well advised to take no chances. Run, don’t walk to the Shirlington Village box office. Be prepared, if necessary, to stand in line to get your tickets to see Soft Power before it closes. If you care about America in this challenging election year, don’t expect to wear your “I voted” sticker on Election Day November 5th and have done enough. No. Seeing “Soft Power” before America votes definitely should be on your to-do-list.
So, what is all the fuss about? Well, first, it’s about 85 minutes long with no intermission but chockablock with propulsive excitement and on-stage incitement. Second, this production is a wonderful wizardly whirlwind mix of comedy and drama, fantasia and exposition, hallucination and history, song and dance, politics and love story, dream and nightmare. Washington Post writer Richard Morgan described the play as a “Hell-and-back lampoon that nevertheless remains jaunty and joyful”.
Oh, and it just slipped my mind. Hillary Clinton is one of the main characters, albeit a fictionalized version of the real-life presidential candidate, in this musical set during and after the 2016 campaign. Hillary is portrayed on stage, as is every other character, by an Asian actor and/or singer in a cast of talented performers that together light up the stage. In a syncopated pastiche of multiple realms and realities, they brought down the house over and over until curtain, ending in cheers and a standing ovation.
So, Dear Reader, what’s the back story on this ravishing, astonishing production that begins in predictable reliable-narrator fashion but then suddenly shifts into utterly unpredictable, unreliable territory which is, come to think of it, a pretty honest description of politics in America circa 2024?
In this slightly fictionalized universe on stage, a Chinese American playwright is known as DHH (for the real-life Tony award-winning David Henry Hwang, who is also co-author of the book for Soft Power). DHH is caught up in a proverbial Clash of Civilizations between prosperous mercantilist Communist China and, on the other side, an America in which a fictionalized Hillary Clinton campaigned to be our first woman president.
DHH accepts a state Chinese commission to write a Chinese-centric musical equivalent of the 1950s Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “The King and I.” The aim is to craft it according to the precepts of diplomatic so-called soft power so that Americans somehow are convinced to accept the Confucian statist wisdom of the Chinese model over the Western neoliberal model that celebrates individualism and the free market.
All hell soon breaks loose on stage when DHH is stabbed in the neck by an unknown assailant, an incident taken directly from his own real life when, in 2015, Hwang was stabbed and nearly died. From this shocking incident staged in near darkness springs a hallucinatory dream vision that encompasses American and Chinese competing models. In one sequence the Chinese producer who has been dispatched to keep an eye on DHH, Xue Xing (superbly acted by Daniel May) and Hillary seem to be falling in love, each shifting closer together as they endeavor to gain a better understanding of the other’s world.
One stand-out scene is indelible. Hillary, played brilliantly with vim, vigor, verve and vivacious vocals by Grace Yoo, presents herself as a chilly but also warm wannabe president. But she is also a woman yearning for real love and, to her surprise, nearly finds it. In this scene, Hillary, clad in suffragist white, belts out the song about “Democracy” admitting that “we’ve got problems.” That’s putting it mildly!
The scene suddenly shifts in a quick costume change, revealing an even more powerful Hillary but I’ll leave that as a surprise for future audiences. Suffice to say she is in a memorable costume, and gyrating to the bouncy beat of the music. It should be noted that the 10 musicians, led by conductor Angie Benson, are terrific and reach every bright note of the bouncy score with effortless skill.
Of course, even more can be said of this production and company. The talented direction by Signature Theater’s associate artistic director Ethan Heard for one. The remarkable menu of whirling, breathtaking choreography by Billy Bustamante stands out. Notable efforts also are delivered by scenic designer Chika Shimizu and costume, lighting, and sound design by respectively Helen Q. Huang, Oliver Watson, and Eric Norris.
More could be said but time’s nearly up on this review. Let us simply say that this production is incandescent and provocative on every level. It’s a giant hit in the making. I predict this show could and should in various up-datings (as this one was updated from the 2017 original) simply run forever somewhere. It really has everything. Go see it!
See video clips, find out more about this production and buy tickets for the DC Premiere of
Soft Power at Signature Theater through September 15, 2024
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Virginia 22206 www.sigtheatre.org
