There’s a reason Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times referred to Soft Power as the biggest opening in Los Angeles this spring. Look at the pedigree: Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M Butterfly) and Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) have joined forces for a show that at one time was scheduled to be staged inside the Mark Taper Forum. So ambitious is this show that it finds itself beginning previews this week at the Ahmanson Theatre.
The show takes a look at America just after the 2016 elections. Even though Hillary Clinton has lost the election, a Chinese executive who is on a business trip to America falls in love with the former Secretary of State. Apparently we see that portion as a play. The perspective gets shifted and is seen through a Chinese lens 50 years in the future in the form of a musical examining how China stepped in when American no longer was leading the world. Soft Power examines the shifting relationship between East and West in a way that only a Broadway musical could. Or is it a play? Or both? The advertising calls it “A play with a musical.”
Starring in Soft Power is Conrad Ricamora (best known for How to Get Away with Murder, but amazing as Aquino in the David Byrne/Fat Boy Slim musical Here Lies Love), Francis Jue (M Butterfly) and Raymond J. Lee. Leigh Silverman directs.
Composer Tesori also wrote the music for the deeply moving and challenging musical Caroline, Or Change. Hwang also wrote the play Yellow Face. Both these artists take risks and ask audiences to come along on unique journeys with them.
After its engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre, Soft Power will move to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco for a run from June 20 – July 8th. Will Broadway be next?