Rehearsals are underway for Signature Theatre's upcoming production of the D.C.-area premiere of Soft Power, the musical fantasia from Tony winners Jeanine Tesori (Kimberly Akimbo, Fun Home) and David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face).
The newly revised production, directed by Signature Associate Artistic Director Ethan Heard, will play the MAX Theatre August 6–September 15.
In the video above, watch Grace Yoo, who plays Hillary Clinton, perform "I'm With Her," joined by Chani Wereley and the full company.
The cast is set to feature Steven Eng as DHH, Daniel May (Flower Drum Song) as Xue Xing, and Yoo (Hadestown) as Hillary Clinton with Eymard Cabling (Miss Saigon national tour) as Randy Ray and others, Andrew Cristi (A Christmas Story)
as Chief Justice and others, Jonny Lee Jr. as Bobby Bob and others,
Quynh-My Luu as Waiter and others, Christopher Mueller as VEEP and
others, Ashley D. Nguyen as Jīng and others, Wereley as Betsy Ross
and others, Nicholas Yenson as Holden Caulfield and others, and Sumié
Yotsukura as Flight Attendant and others. Olivia Clavel-Davis, Brian
Dauglash, Emily Song Tyler, and Joey Urgino are swings.
With music by Tesori and a book and lyrics by Hwang, the musical is set after the 2016 election, when a Chinese American
playwright, attacked by an unknown assailant, hallucinates a Golden
Age musical comedy about a Chinese theatre producer and Hillary Clinton
falling in love. The political satire asks: Does American Democracy still work? And is it worth believing
in?
The upcoming production will also have choreography by Billy
Bustamante, music supervision by Chris Fenwick, music direction by Angie
Benson, scenic design by Chika Shimizu, costume design by Helen Q.
Huang, lighting design by Oliver Wason, sound design by Eric Norris, and
wig design by Anne Nesmith.
Danny Troob is the orchestrator, Russ Anixter is the copyist,
Alexander Greenberg is the music assistant and keyboard programmer,
Ka-Ling Cheung is the dialect coach, and Casey Kaleba is the fight
choreographer. Casting is by Jorge Acevedo with New York casting by
Geoff Josselson.
“The King and I is a musical I've always loved,” said Hwang in a recent statement. “But when I saw the most recent Broadway revival in 2015, I found myself troubled by its premise: a white woman helps the King of Siam to civilize his country and bring it into the family of nations. Yet, because this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is so beautifully written, I was still in tears by the end. I set out to try and simulate this complexity by creating a ‘reverse King and I’ where a Chinese national comes to rescue America. Originally, I thought this ‘yellow savior’ would help President Hillary Clinton solve the problem of gun violence. We had a reading of this version in 2016—the day of the election. The next morning, I called director Leigh Silverman to say, ‘I think this is going to be bad for the country ... but it could be good for our musical.’ I also found myself writing about another true incident: a few years prior, I had been stabbed in the neck by an unknown assailant. So Soft Power is a show that has been shaped by real-life events. I am grateful to Signature Theatre for giving Jeanine Tesori and me this opportunity to continue working on our musical, now shaped by the realities we face in 2024.”
“I think there are a lot of us right now—on both sides of the aisle—that are struggling to find out who we are as a United States,” added Tesori. “Soft Power was affected by events in our country and an attack on David himself. Many of us felt attacked and ill-prepared for the 2016 election. We believed we were safe and then in one violent act—it felt violent—everything came apart. And David's questioning of a beautiful, well-intentioned piece of work like The King and I was incredibly interesting to me, because it made me wonder about the delivery system of a musical: to look past the way they hit our ears, to how they hit our hearts and minds. Musicals have great soft power. They can transform our beliefs.”
Kerry Epstein is the production stage manager, and Joey Blakely and Taryn Friend are the assistant stage managers.
Tickets start at $40 and are available at SigTheatre.org.
