#2
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:33pm
Washington Post is positive (though mostly has positive things to say about the cast; the rest of the review is more description than commentary)
Daniel Dae Kim as a playwright at wit’s end
David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” tackles tricky questions of representation, authenticity and who gets to tell whose story.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/10/01/yellow-face-review-broadway-daniel-dae-kim/
#3
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:35pm
NYT Critic's Pick from Green
Review: Daniel Dae Kim as a Playwright Unmasked in ‘Yellow Face’
David Henry Hwang’s 2007 play, now in a fine Broadway revival, is a pointed critique of identity, masquerading as a mockumentary.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/01/theater/yellow-face-review-daniel-dae-kim.html
#4
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:36pm
Variety is positive
‘Yellow Face’ Review: Daniel Dae Kim Leads a Witty, Powerful Broadway Staging of David Henry Hwang’s Comedy
https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/yellow-face-play-review-daniel-dae-kim-broadway-1236160159/
#5
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:38pm
Deadline is positive
‘Yellow Face’ Broadway Review: Daniel Dae Kim Lets Loose In Farce That Unmasks Hypocrisy
https://deadline.com/2024/10/yellow-face-broadway-review-daniel-dae-kim-1236103847/
"How it manages to be relevant, insightful and very funny as it makes its Broadway debut tonight, all these years later, is anyone’s guess, but it does.
We can start by thanking Hwang’s terrific play – cut by a half-hour since its overlong Off Broadway version – and crackerjack direction by Leigh Silverman. Perhaps most of all, the production’s appeal rests with a cast led by an excellent Daniel Dae Kim, the Lost and Avatar: The Last Airbender star making a seamless transition to the Broadway stage."
#6
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:41pm
Holdren in Vulture is positive, with particular praise for the cast.
https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-reviews-yellow-face-hwang-good-bones-ijames.html
"Seventeen years is an eon in theater time, enough to make some plays feel as dated as fondue and Fawlty Towers, but David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face has aged well. Currently receiving its belated Broadway premiere in a swift, tangy production by Leigh Silverman — who also directed its first New York run in 2007 — the play retains its bite in part because its essential subject, like that of many a good comedy, is human folly. “Are you familiar with the Chinese concept of ‘face’?” asks a character in Hwang’s play — that’s as in “losing face” or “saving face.” Although both the inciting incident and the core conflict of Yellow Face have to do with instances of Asian impersonation by a white actor, there’s a reason Hwang’s title has a space in it. It’s not just about white foolishness — it’s about his own, too."
#7
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:43pm
Daily Beast is positive
https://www.thedailybeast.com/review-the-ghosts-of-good-bones-and-yellow-face-on-broadway
"perhaps the real power Yellow Face proposes is of minority voices not just delivering sober-minded rebuttals to bigotry, but—in occupying spaces like a Broadway theater—offering those rebuttals with irreverent humor and pointed swagger while playing with audiences’ perceptions and expectations as freely as possible."
#8
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:47pm
Hofler at The Wrap is typically contrarian, and mostly seems to be fact-checking the play (it's not a documentary, so...)
‘Yellow Face’ Broadway Review: David Henry Hwang Struggles to Bolster His Reputation
Regardless of what this play tells us, “M. Butterfly” hasn’t aged well
https://www.thewrap.com/yellow-face-broadway-review-david-henry-hwang/
"David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” is a difficult play to review. The playwright has made himself the lead character, and he fills this semi-autobiographical story with lots of other real names, from Ed Koch to Frank Rich, and he quotes from them. But the play’s bad guy is completely made up, and Hwang doesn’t reveal this fact until its end. Hwang is clever to the extreme in his deceptions."
#9
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:49pm
Two four-star reviews from NY Stage Review
YELLOW FACE: LAUGH, REFLECT, REPEAT
By Melissa Rose Bernardo
★★★★☆ Playwright David Henry Hwang gives main-character energy in a self-deprecating stage mockumentary
https://nystagereview.com/2024/10/01/yellow-face-laugh-reflect-repeat/
YELLOW FACE: PLAYWRIGHT DAVID HENRY HWANG HAS FUN UNMASKING HIMSELF
By David Finkle
★★★★☆ Daniel Dae Kim, as Hwang, leads the revival featuring a comic cast under Leigh Silverman's direction
https://nystagereview.com/2024/10/01/yellow-face-playwright-david-henry-hwang-has-fun-unmasking-himself/
#10
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:52pm
Chicago Tribune is positive
Review: In ‘Yellow Face’ on Broadway, David Henry Hwang has some fun with a thorny question
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/01/review-in-yellow-face-on-broadway-david-henry-hwang-has-some-fun-with-a-thorny-question/
"what makes this an enjoyable play, and different from most of the other dramas built around racial identity, is that “Yellow Face” is (mostly) a comedy and Hwang, who is amusingly played in the show by the witty actor Daniel Dae Kim (“Lost”), is willing to poke fun at himself.
Weird as it may sound, “Yellow Face” is a good time in the company of smart, self-aware people, critical thinkers willing to ponder the lessons and the follies of the past."
#11
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:55pm
4 stars from TimeOut
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/yellow-face-broadway-review-david-henry-hwang-daniel-dae-kim-asian-american
"Hwang has given Yellow Face a minor face lift since the original New York production. It’s good work: Minus its intermission and a few inessential scenes, the play seems tauter and smoother, but not unnaturally so; its wrinkles and laugh lines remain. Kim, whose only previous Broadway experience was a brief stint in the King and I role originated by the non-Asian Yul Brynner, capably holds the show’s center as DHH, with an appealing layer of fluster behind his veneer of success."
Fixing link
Updated On: 10/1/24 at 09:55 PM
#12
Posted: 10/1/24 at 9:59pm
Theatermania is mixed (positive on the production, less so on the material)
https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-daniel-dae-kim-plays-david-henry-hwang-in-yellow-face_1751759/
"Such navel-gazing could potentially be more interesting than most coming from Hwang, one of the most visible Asian American artists out there, and one who has been outspoken about Asian American representation in media over the years. His desire to raise pointed questions in Yellow Face, though, appears to have gotten in the way of crafting a coherent piece of theater — though some may find that more a blessing than a curse."
#14
Posted: 10/1/24 at 10:59pm
DTLI Consensus: David Henry Hwang’s self-loathing comedy of human folly is still as prescient as ever.
9 positive (including the NYT), 2 mixed.
https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/yellow-face/
“I am furious, but I am sailing.”
#15
Posted: 10/2/24 at 12:01am
Theatrely is positive
https://www.theatrely.com/post/yellow-face-finally-makes-it-to-broadway-review
"truth is a slippery beast in this wickedly funny, regrettably timely satire, first staged in 2007 and now given its Broadway debut at Roundabout's Todd Haimes Theatre. The play toys mischievously with real-life events, colliding reality and fiction until the two grow hard to distinguish. And though its late turn into earnestness does not quite land in Leigh Silverman’s tonally uneven staging, this revival is nonetheless thoughtful and tremendously entertaining."
#16
Posted: 10/2/24 at 12:02am
NY Sun:
Tony Winner David Henry Hwang’s 2007 Play ‘Yellow Face’ Makes Its Broadway Bow
Under Leigh Silverman’s sprightly direction, this new production confirms both Hwang’s flair for satire and his prescience as a social critic.
https://www.nysun.com/article/tony-winner-david-henry-hwangs-2007-play-yellow-face-makes-its-broadway-bow
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