Jennifer Lim and Gary Wilmes

Ask anyone to name an Asian-American playwright, and the answer is likely to be David Henry Hwang. His best-known play, M. Butterfly not only nabbed Tony Award, the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards but was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, as was the lesser-known The Dance and the Railroad (Both pre-date Curtainup's birth). Though born and raised in Los Angeles and educated at the Yale School of Drama, Hwang is widely regarded as this country's foremost Asian-American playwright.

Though Golden Child made it to Broadway it was only mildly successful. In short, nothing has matched the spectacular success of M. Butterfly. Yet Hwang has continued to be a playwright to whom attention should be, and is, paid not only because he writes well but because he's gutsy enough to revisit failures that other playwrights would be happy to leave buried. Case in point: His last New York production Yellow Face not only returned to his controversial brouhaha over the casting of a white actor, Jonathan Pryce, as the lead in Miss Saigon, but also to his dead on arrival Face Value, If nothing else, Chinglish once again proves Hwang's gutsiness since at least half of it is in Mandarin. But not to worry on that score. With the playwright's Yellow Face collaborator Leigh Silverman at the helm, the audience at the Longacre will know exactly what's going on. In fact, the super titles used to keep them from getting lost in the linguistic morass turn out be what gives Chinglish it's comic edge.

As Yellow Face revisited a play most playwrights would be happy to leave buried and forgotten, so Chinglish is also a revisit-- in this case to the M. Butterfly theme but with a decidedly contemporary spin and a comedic twist: The falseness and mis-communication in culture-crossing relationships. In Chinglish that theme is played out in the boardroom as well as the bedroom.

Since Chinglish has transferred to Broadway intact in terms of director, design team and everyone in the cast except the Midwestern businessman Daniel Cavanaugh, and my own take on it puts me pretty much on the same page as our Chicago critic Larry Bommer. Consequently, this review will add just a few comments on the transfer and then wnd up with a click to the original review -- Original Chicago Production Review.

David Korins' gliding and swiveling sets are again a major asset -- in fact, if ever a set came close to stealing the show this is it. The adroitly on target locales include a hotel lobby complete with elevator and revolving door.

Gary Wilmes, who was a standout in the Elevator Repair Service's epic Gatz is just right as the American trying to navigate the strange and confusing language and customs of the country which turns out to be his desperate last ditch effort to rise from economic ruin. Yes, indeed, this is a comedy with more than laughs on its mind with this not so innocent American a symbol of his entire country -- even though the sum of its parts is more what Larry called a charming if half-baked confection about the comic and serious fallout of faulty translation.

While all the original bi-lingual characters continue to deliver their misinterpretations with panache, Jennifer Lim is not only the standout but actually the play's most interesting and complex character-- a new Chinese woman who knows how to navigate the slippery slope of traditional mores with both feet firmly planted in the present. Also terrific is Stephen Pucci as Peter Timms, the only other non-Chinese character. As the Englishman who's been in China for 19 years who brings his own less than fully revealed past to his job as Daniel's guide in "Guanxi" for bullding successful global relationships, he reminds one of the characters in Somerset Maugham's once best-selling short stories and novels about far from home Brits.

Daniel's lectures about his experience in Guiyang, China neatly bookend the expertly and entertainingly crafted and staged play, but I agree with Larry that these scenes underscore the play's ultimate weakness: Great style, but not quite enough substance.

Broadway Production Notes Chinglish by David Henry Hwang
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Cast: Garry Wilmes (Daniel) Stephen Pucci (Peter), Jennifer Lim (Xu Yan), Larry Zhang (Cai Guoliang), Christine Lin (Mrs. Zhao), Angela Lin (Miss Qian/Prosecutor Li), and Johnny Wu (Judge Xu Geming/ Bing)
Set Designer: David Korins.
Costume Designer: Anita Yavich.
Lighting Designer: Brian MacDevitt.
Sound Design: Darron West
Projections: Jeff Sugg
Stage Manager: Stephen M. Kaus
Running Time: 2 hours with intermission
Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street
From 10/11/11; opening 10/27/11
Closing 1/29/12
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer November 1st
Click here for the Original Chicago Production Review.