Soft Power musical

[WindyNewYorker]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 10:52am

Does anyone on the board know if the “Soft Power” for Signature Theatre has a new reworded book? I saw the Public Theater production back in 2019 and thought it was very interesting the way Tesori and Hwang uses the structure of “King and I” in this musical within a play show.

There seems to be a talk that the show was going to transfer on Broadway but the book needed updates and revision. So I am very excited to see that the work has been picked up again in DC.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 11:02am

The casting notice stated "Prior to the production at Signature, the writers and creative team will be holding a [10-day] New York workshop to further develop the piece."

It also has a new director now. So I don't know the extent to which it has been revised, but we should expect some textual revisions compared to what played at the Public and in California.

It had a commercial producer attached previously (Christine Schwartzman's No Guarantees) but I don't know what her current status is on the show.

Updated On: 6/25/24 at 11:02 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 11:03am

I certainly hope they've done work on the book- at the Public, it felt unfocused and had tonal issues toggling between the very stylized and satirical dream musical and the realistic framing scenes (there was also an additional meta layer on top of the already meta layers that either needed to be better explored or excised). I also felt that the decision to sideline Hwang's character, the ostensible main character, halfway through both strained my suspension of disbelief and meant the focus shifted to pretty thin, satirical characters in whom I was never sure how emotionally invested I should be.

Updated On: 6/25/24 at 11:03 AM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 11:23am

The listing on the Signature Theatre website also states that it's now 85 minutes no intermission, so it seems that they've definitely made some structural changes.  I'm definitely planning on making a trip down, and I'm pleased to see that they decided to keep working on it even with getting shortlisted for a Pulitzer for the Public Theatre version, as I thought it was a really interesting piece that was still quite flawed.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 11:33am

Streamlining it to an 85-min one-act seems like a really good step. Asking the audience to invest in such an ironic show-within-a-show across 2 acts and 2 hours is a tall order and it did feel like it was spinning its wheels.

Updated On: 6/25/24 at 11:33 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 11:33am

If it's actually 85 mins now that would mean they cut an hour from it, which is pretty major.

I really liked that show at the Public, imperfect as it was. Hopefully some time off has given Tesori & Hwang a chance to look at it with fresh eyes. Being a little further removed from the 2016 election probably helps too.

Updated On: 6/25/24 at 11:33 AM

[WindyNewYorker]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 8:52pm

A DC trip should happen now. I like the orchestration they did for the public theater, and hopes the music and the instrumentation stays the same. Cut out the discussion part in the beginning of the 2nd act would make the show so much tighter. 
 

[raddersons]

Posted: 6/25/24 at 10:57pm

I really really loved this at The Public, despite its flaws. If they’re really cutting it down to 85 minutes, they must be eliminating almost the entire framing device. The entire thing of

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

The Chinese investor & DHH getting attacked on the street 

is surely to be the first stuff removed, if not severely condensed. 

I kinda loved the mess of it, it felt big but scrappy. But it was definitely not a commercial sell. 

[Kad]

Posted: 6/26/24 at 12:00am

I would be surprised if they removed those scenes entirely, considering both the autobiographical nature of that incident and it being the setup. From what I recall, the setup took quite a while to get going/ I could see it being condensed, as well as the show-within-a-show being streamlined considerably. 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 7/24/24 at 10:38am

Studio video of I'm With Her from the Signature production: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Exclusive-Im-With-Her-from-Signature-Theatres-Revised-SOFT-POWER-20240724

It's interesting that they've decided to go with a full Asian cast, including Grace Yoo as Hilary Clinton

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 8/15/24 at 11:51pm

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.

[WindyNewYorker]

Posted: 8/16/24 at 12:16am

Thank you so much for the review, as I unfortunately is traveling and won’t be able to see the show. Hoping the show would have a limited run on Broadway. This is a must needed AAPI show.

Updated On: 9/13/24 at 12:16 AM

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 9/13/24 at 1:44pm

Has anyone else seen it?