Soft Power (musical)

Soft Power
MusicJeanine Tesori
LyricsDavid Henry Hwang
Jeanine Tesori (additional lyrics)
BookDavid Henry Hwang
PremiereMay 3, 2018 (2018-05-03): Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
Productions2018 Los Angeles
2018 San Francisco
2019 Off-Broadway
2024 Arlington, VA

Soft Power is a musical (also referred to by its authors as a "play with a musical"[1]) with book and lyrics by David Henry Hwang[2] and music and additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori.

Soft Power was intended as a "reverse The King And I". Instead of exoticizing an Asian country, Soft Power exoticizes America by looking at it from a hypothetical future Chinese musical. It also serves as a quasi-sequel to Hwang's 2007 play Yellow Face. Like that play, the semi-autobiographical work centers around a stand-in for the author named DHH interacting with fictional characters.[3] The play was partially inspired by a 2015 stabbing of Hwang by a stranger on the streets of New York City.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference nytimes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Soft Power review: A form-busting examination of the American Dream|EW.com
  3. ^ Fung, Lisa (2018-05-03). "A big bet on 'Soft Power': How David Henry Hwang's latest play takes on China, Trump and more". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  4. ^ Woods, Amanda (2015-12-04). "Broadway playwright stabbed in the neck during random attack". New York Post. Retrieved 29 August 2024.