Provoking liberal laughter in both senses of the word liberal, Soft Power registers as more of a satire with musical numbers rather than as a satirical musical.
Whichever, this frequently wry, extremely topical show cheerfully mocks East-West cultural misperceptions, xenophobic attitudes, gun/gang/mob violence in the United States, our electoral college system, the communism versus democracy question, and even Golden Age Broadway musicals.
The show further dreams up a romantic escapade featuring Hillary Clinton, who enjoys a Fred & Ginger sort of whirlwind affair with a hot younger man from China.
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★ review here.]
All this and it’s given a meta-theatrical spin, too, since the story is anchored in a real-life event: David Henry Hwang, the distinguished librettist and lyricist of Soft Power, was seriously injured in a random hate crime several years ago when he was stabbed in the neck by a stranger.
This near-tragedy repeats in Soft Power because Hwang appears as a character here; a same-named award-winning Chinese-American playwright hired to write the script for a Broadway-style romantic musical. Titled Stick With Your Mistake, it’s crafted to inaugurate a new theater built in Shanghai as a launching pad for a series of new smash hit musicals that will export Chinese values to a worldwide audience.
As this plot unfolds, on the same day Clinton loses the presidential election, Hwang is fired by the Shanghai impresario, and then out of nowhere gets stabbed on the street near his Brooklyn home.
In what may be a nod to the satirical Gershwin musical Strike Up the Band (which framed a U.S. war against Switzerland over chocolate tariffs as a dream), the hospitalized Hwang hallucinates the rest of the screwball doings for Soft Power. Oh, yes, a war erupts here, too.
In Hwang’s delirium, all of those blazing topics mentioned previously, and others, are sporadically stirred up amid yummy music composed by Jeanine Tesori, who also wrote some lyrics for this agreeable score that’s been brightly arranged with a Broadway sheen for a 22-member orchestra.
Among highlights:
“I’m With Her,” is a mad song-and-dance sequence in a glitzy nightclub version of McDonalds where Clinton rips off her pantsuit to tap, spin, and make hip-hop moves clad in a skimpy Wonder Woman outfit meant to impress voters.
“It Just Takes Time” involves a reverse variation on The King and I theme as Clinton is carefully taught something cultural by the handsome Shanghai theater producer, who then shall-we-dances her off into a rousing polka.
“Election Night” is a merry production number featuring the ballot box that kids Ragtime until it turns deadly serious as an angry mob roars into a “Make America great again” chorus and—well, let’s note that Soft Power is not entirely a lighthearted romp.
Nor is Soft Power an entirely satisfying show.
In spite of multitudinous satirical laughs, several beguiling tunes, and a dandy staging by ace director Leigh Silverman and choreographer Sam Pinkleton, the ambitious Soft Power takes too much time in cranking up and then loses steam by targeting too many topical targets. Parts of these overlong two-act doings, such as a “Good Guys with Guns” musical hoe-down in the Oval Office, scarcely prove sharper than a typical SNL sketch. The conclusion does not land effectively.
While Hwang’s satirical aim tends to be scattershot, he nevertheless offers plenty of insights regarding cultural perceptions. These points are magnified by a funhouse mirror treatment of the characters from Silverman, who employs a terrific 14-actor ensemble that is almost entirely composed by Asian or Asian-American performers. Ably morphing into multiple roles, the energetic company’s talents animate the show’s unevenly cartoonish tone.
Francis Jue drolly worries as the ever-anxious Hwang. Conrad Ricamora is smooth and sonorous as the wise Shanghai producer. In a knockout performance, a vivacious Alyse Alan Louis positively glows as her wounded post-election Clinton encounters love. A wistful “Happy Enough” duet shared by Ricamora and Louis provides a quietly touching interlude late in an otherwise bustling scenario.
It is evident that the Public Theater, where Soft Power opened Tuesday, has spent big bucks on the show, with plenty of clever scenery by Clint Ramos, apt quick-change costumes by Anita Yavich, and dynamic lighting from Mark Barton. Silverman’s pacing and Pinkleton’s eclectic choreography drive everything along at a snappy clip.
Such confident expertise, smarts, and speed gloss over the musical’s lesser stretches and deliver a national lampoon certain to engage audiences who like their entertainment thoughtful.
Soft Power opened October 15, 2019, at the Public Theater and runs through November 17. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
