Saw this last Saturday and thought I'd note some changes (I might go into minor spoiler territory because it's a bit tough to talk about the show without its conceit).
First of all, I think the show benefits a ton from the shorter runtime, especially with cutting out some of the scenes/monologues that felt a bit overly didactic/self-indulgent. I had seen both the LA and NYC productions and I think both times the opening scenes got the audience feeling restless, but now there's only one scene and a transition bit before we get to the first song, and it's just Xue Xing and DHH talking about the musical that DHH is writing (they also took out the idea of it being based on an existing Chinese TV show and now it's just any musical he can write that would show China in a good light)--no Zoe or any discussion of musicals as a "delivery system". The sequence of the attack happens in a lot quicker fashion too (though it possibly might've been too rushed), and I think the transition into the first song is a bit smoother. Naturally, what used to be the second act opener is cut too, given that there's no intermission and the musical is framed somewhat differently.
The songs are almost all exactly the same, though I think there's a minor change in the dance arrangement of It Just Takes Time. Happy Enough is trimmed and modified a bit as well, which ended up cutting one of my favorite lyrics as well, though I think it was part of them wanting to shift focus a bit. The biggest change comes in New Silk Road where a chunk of the lyrics are changed to be sharper and more pointed, less of a rosy disposition as the original version, though the music itself stays the same (with the female interlude cut). It sets up the scene change better for going into Democracy and I think helps really clarify some of the themes of the piece.
Grace Yoo is absolutely the standout as Hilary Clinton, with a tremendous presence and a great voice (and it's thrilling to see her out of costume during the reprise of Democracy). Daniel Mays serves as a more stately Xue Xing, and Steven Eng plays DHH quite well (and is even made to look like his real life counterpart too). I missed some of the projected backdrops from the earlier versions (the set here is fairly simple with two levels and set pieces wheeled on and off for different locations), especially the recurring joke about the nonsensical geography of the US.
I think Ethan Heard's direction has figured out how to tread the line between camp and earnestness a bit better, and I'm sure it'll only improve through the course of previews to feel more deliberate. DHH's closing monologue is still quite powerful (even moreso since his early narration is cut) and I found myself tearing up again by the end. It seemed like the audience enjoyed it, though I'm not sure that everyone fully understood the concept, but people seemed quite enthusiastic after the musical numbers (The Ballot Box in particular was a hit).
I think it's a really interesting time to be doing the show, of course being a stone's throw away from DC and just a few months before a presidential election where a lot of this feels scarily relevant again. But it had also seemed that patriotism and the idea of American optimism was a bit of a thing of the past for my generation as of late and suddenly had a resurgence again with the Olympics happening. And this might sound cheesy but in a way, people uniting over the Olympics felt like it gave me more hope for the country being able to come together as a whole, and a lot of the themes in this show played on that.
If I was closer to Arlignton I'd love to come again at the end of the run to see if they implement any other changes, but overall I think it's in pretty good shape and I'm happy to see they haven't shied away from working on it and making big edits.
