Theater Reviews: Writers Struggle With Integrity in “McNeal” (Novelist), “Safety Not Guaranteed” (Journalist) and “Yellow Face” (Playwright)

Yellow Face (c) Joan Marcus

Broadway: Yellow Face 
At the Todd Haimes Theatre 

Playwright David Henry Hwang has written for different genres from opera (Alice in Wonderland, The Fly) to musicals (Tarzan, Aida), usually adapted from various mediums. For his own personal works, the medium he adapts from his own life. Like his last musical, Soft Power, in Yellow Face, which is having a splashy Broadway revival after premiering Off-Broadway in 2007, the main character is DHH, and even if the story may veer into the fictional, it always seems to be inspired by real events in Hwang’s life. There are two major events in Yellow Face, and if you look at the playwright’s Wikipedia page, they did happen: Hwang (played with quizzical fun by Daniel Dae Kim) was one of the major players in the 1990 Asian American actors protest of Caucasian actor Jonathan Price playing an Eurasian man in the musical Miss Saigon and how that brouhaha lead to him writing his play Face Value, which was a flop, closing before it opened on Broadway. What isn’t as well known is that the actor cast as the Asian lead in the Boston try-out of Face Value was a white man named Marcus G. Dahlman (Ryan Eggold, in full clueless mode), which would be quite the egg on DHH’s face if it comes to light. 

Theater Reviews: Four Engaging Off-Broadway Musicals Deal With Varied Themes Like Revenge (“Medea: Re-Versed”), Faith (“See What I Wanna See”), Children (“That Parenting Musical”) and Musical Theater Itself (“Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song”)

Medea Re-Versed (c) Carol Rosegg

Theater: Medea: Re-Versed 
At the Sheen Center Frank Shiner Theatre 

For us New Yorker theatergoers, we probably take for granted the caliber of our acting community. But every once in a while, a production takes an audience’s collective breath away with how a company of actors can blow our minds when we least expect it. At first, I assumed The Red Bull Theater and Bedlam’s production of Medea: Re-Versed would be the umpteenth reimagining of Euripides' play in which the vengeful Medea wreaks havoc on her cheating husband by (a 2,500-year spoiler alert) killing everyone he holds dear. But walking into the Shiner Theatre to three musicians (Siena D'Addario, Melissa Mahoney and Mark Martin) slowly strumming and beat-bopping at a hum level was intriguing, and by the time the show actually starts with the rap verse intro by the leader of the chorus (a charming Luis Quintero), we are hooked, especially when he reminds us “ya’ll the kind of people who came here to see a tragedy.” Luis Quintero's adaptation is full of fourth-wall breaking comments like these (especially when he warns us at the start about audience participation). 

The Interested Bystander’s Oscar Predictions: September 2024

The Room Next Door (c) Sony Pictures Classics

It’s that time of year again. Award season? No. Predicting award season? You betcha. Most of the names below will not be familiar to you unless you went to or followed closely to the film festivals this year. From Sundance and Cannes to Toronto and Telluride, these films got good reviews, got picked up for distribution (except one) and will be released before the end of the year. I am basing all my predictions to those reviews and if the films will fit into the Academy’s taste. I have some wish-dicting, too, since we’re still early in the process. I mean, Aubrey Plaza in My Old Ass has the problem that no one has it on their radar, but it would be great for Plaza to get an Oscar nomination. And if you think the title might turn people off, what about Nightbitch, the new Amy Adams movie? Other films are about a prostitute, the Catholic Church, incarcerated criminals, Bob Dylan and the Witches of Oz. 

Enjoy. 

Film Reviews: “Tokyo Cowboy” Is a Charming Fish-Out-of-Water Tale, “His Three Daughters” Is an Engrossing Family-in-Crisis Tale and “Lover of Men” is a Convincing Abraham Lincoln-Was-Gay Tale

Tokyo Cowboy (c) Purdie Distribution

Film: Tokyo Cowboy 
In Cinemas 

Having a very limited roll-out in arthouse cinemas, Marc Marriott’s Tokyo Cowboy is a charming and simple story, less about a stranger in a strange world and more about a lost soul finding his purpose. Hideki (Arata Iura) is a business strategist in Japan who sees potential in organizations that seem like lost causes to others. When his company decides to sell off an unprofitable cattle ranch in Montana in their holdings, Hideki intervenes and says they could use the ranch to start a Wagyu business in America. On a short leash by his boss Keiko (Ayako Fujitani), who is also his longtime girlfriend, he travels to Montana with a Wagyu expert and English translator Wada (Jun Kunimura) to start the conversion. However, when they get there, the ranchers, including former owner Peg (Robin Weigert) see no viability to this plan as they would need corn to make this work, and the land will not support crops. With Wada conveniently leaving the story (in a fun way), Hideki has to fumble forward with Google Translate, trying to find a way to make his plan work. But he keeps doing everything wrong, including the clothes he wears, the car he rents and his uptight work ethic. Only when he finds an unlikely alliance with a Mexican ranch worker Javier (Goya Robles), who is also an outsider to the all-white ranch, does Hideki learn to fit in. Although nothing in the actual plot is at all surprising, there are so many little delightful moments of truth and human observation that you forgive the familiarity of the story. If you don’t think Hideki (and his perfect suit) will end up at least once in the mud, you haven’t seen movies like Doc Hollywood or even Cars and their ilk. The cast sells the story impeccably, from the likeable Arata Iura as Hideki all the way down to Scout Smith as the front desk worker at the motel, who serendipitously is learning Japanese and loves watching anime. Marriot has said he came up with this story after his own experience working in Japan, and he is equally fond of and critical of the unwavering characteristics of both the American and the Japanese. And he even has a diversion into the Mexican American world in a wonderful scene at Javier’s niece’s quinceaňera. Tokyo Cowboy is a generous and life-affirming family film (racism is almost nil) that teaches the most important lesson us humans have the hardest time to learn: empathy. 

The Interested Bystander’s Broadway Fall 2024 Preview

Romeo and Juliet (c) Emilio Madrid

The 2024 Broadway fall season has some promising shows lined up with a starry roster of actors (Robert Downey Jr., Audra McDonald, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, Nicole Scherzinger) and intriguing new plays, musicals and revivals by The Avett Brothers, David Henry Hwang, Elton John and Jake Shears, Leslye Headland, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Thornton Wilder and yes, William Shakespeare. Get your credit cards ready.

 Go.