Archives for posts with tag: news

25 but it will BE…moving on…

July 16, 2025 //

The Fairy Princess has been looking at announced shows for the upcoming Fall, Winter, and Spring season, and in terms of AANHPI representation…things are looking a bit

Which is only to be expected, as it is very hard to top this year, with TONY Awards going to AANHPIs in record numbers. “Our” Award winners in the performance categories literally doubled from 3 to 6.

We had lead players in Broadway plays and musicals of AANHPI descent at a ratio that was shocking, and it is natural that those numbers we ‘readjust’ for this coming season. This is where folks think, ‘Ok, we fixed it’ in terms of diversity in casting.

Last time they ‘fixed it’ like this was, frankly, in 2016 when Hamilton won.

Yes, Hamilton won and just like that casting was ‘solved’.

In point of fact, Broadway did not have a lot of representation going on for the following two years because…everyone felt the issues were fixed.

Were they?

Well let’s see who won in 2017 – Ben Platt, Kevin Kline, Bette Midler, Laurie Metcalf, Gavin Creel, Rachel Bay Jones, Cynthia Nixon to name a few.

In 2018 there was The Band’s Visit, which diversified things a bit, lovely to see – so the names changed somewhat and the TONY winners were Tony Shaloub, Andrew Garfield, Katrina Lenk, Glenda Jackson, Nathan Lane, Ari’el Stachel, Lindsay Mendez and Laurie Metcalf

So…yes, you will see the occasional person as part of a cast, your friends who are in shows are not suddenly being released, you can still see them, TFP is talking new shows on the horizon…

There is not, at the moment, a slated AANHPI cast coming to Broadway in the 2025/26 season that has been announced. (yet)

There is a role in Queen of Versailles that has representation, but we shall have to wait till it opens.

TFP wants to warn folks who will again, be optimistic as to what this means going forward – that ‘inclusion in casting’ is never ‘solved’. Sometimes Broadway looks like it is an ‘all-play’ and sometimes it looks like a PWI.

Life is a pendulum, sometimes it swings towards and sometimes it swings away. Looking objectively at the casts that have been announced for Broadway, TFP is thinking you will find more of ‘your/our’ stories Off Broadway.

Do not forget to support theater companies like Pan Asian Rep, Ma-Yi, and others because right now, with the NEA Grants either being postponed or pemanently frozen, ‘we’ are going to have to support the theater we want to see.

You have to enjoy what you have when you have it, and hope to push the bar forward so that options are always available.

Like noodles.

However, as the Gray Lady, The New York Times has announced enormous change in their theater critics assignments, perhaps some shows with a more novel point of view will be embraced going forward, which will enable change to be consistent.

Meanwhile let’s check in with ‘our’ TONY winners, what is going on, and how long is everyone staying….

Past TONY Winner, Lea Salonga, has closed OLD FRIENDS on Broadway and is in the Philippines doing the Sondheim classic, INTO THE WOODS. She is also set to receive her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – we do not have a date yet, but that is very exciting.

Marco Paguia is still at Buena Vista Social Club leading the orchestra. He won for Best Orchestrations. The show is selling out, and he is staying at the helm musically.

Nicole Scherzinger will be closing Sunset Blvd, the show she won Best Actress in a Musical for on July 20, 2025. It was always a limited run, we just do not have another Hawaiian, Ukranian, Filipina superstar to fill in with a show, and well, that’s life.

Darren Criss, who won Best Actor in a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending, for his role of Oliver – will be leaving his show on August 31, 2025.

Maybe Happy Ending won Best Direction of a Musical for Michael Arden, Best Book of a Musical for Hue Park & Will Aronson, Best Original Score of a Musical for Park & Aronson, Best Scenic Design for Dana Laffey & George Reeve, and it will stay open on Broadway.

The cast is largely AANHPI. However no clue as to how long the Original Broadway Company (Helen J. Shen, Marcus Choi, Dez Duron, Daniel May, Steve Huynh, Hannah Kevitt, Claire Kwon, Christopher James Tamayo) will stay, although we wish them SRO crowds in perpetuity.

Ms. Shen has been announced as part of the cast of the feature film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, also announced as part of that cast is TONY Nominee for 2025 in Oh! Mary, Conrad Ricamora.

Traci Thoms is returning as well, and if “Lily’ doesn’t walk in swinging that now vintage Marc Jacobs blue tote…well, heads will roll.

Congrats to them.

Francis Jue, who won for Best Supporting Actor in a Play for his role in Yellow Face written by David Henry Hwang, a show that is already closed, will next appear in TARTUFFE, as Cleante, which is a new version by playwright Lucas Hnath.

It will be at NYTW and that is Off-Broadway, his co-stars include Matthew Broderick, David Cross, Emily Davis, Bianca del Rio, Amber Gray, Ryan Haddad, Lisa Kron and Ufomadu. It will be directed by Obie winner, Sara Benson.

In fact, reflecting on Mr. Jue, who has now that gleaming TONY Award, that even in this moment ‘at the top’, his next announced project is placing him where he ‘lives’ – doing interesting work Off Broadway.

He has had a 35 year career as an actor. Mr. Jue is a ‘playwright’s actor’ – meaning an actor playwrights like to work with, one that brings to life new works in a way that defines them ever afterward. He has worked for playwrights like David Henry Hwang, Lauren Yee, Hansol Jung, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Kevin So, William Shakespeare, and on and on.

He has ‘changed the stage’ for anyone who seen his work. He is Francis Jue, he was always working. He has a list of awards and nominations as long as your arm – in fact, there is no more honored modern day Actor of Asian heritage than Francis Jue.

The reason that the audience cheered so loudly at the Tonys were because Francis Jue embodies what it is to be an actor. He is a journeyman – ever moving forward, wandering new vistas, exploring new roles. He has done dramas, comedy, television, film, Broadway plays AND Broadway musicals.

He came to the profession in college, and has moved organically through the world – not relying on connections or who his parents were to build his career. He built his career on his body of work. He is a true gentleman of the theater, combining performing with service to Actors Equity Association on occasion – he lives, eats, and breathes theater, and it was lovely that theater recognized it.

That is why everyone cheered.

Now they need to give him another TONY Award worthy role on Broadway. It would be amazing if Cambodian Rock Band came to Broadway…just sayin….cough cough

Congratulations Mr. Jue!

TFP knows that Alvin Ing is cheering for you along with the rest of us.

(Knowing Alvin, he was probably annoyed it took this long, which is why TFP picked this cat meme.)

You can STILL seen AANHPI representation on the stages in New York!

TFP will list a few below:

This is not meant to be depressing, Folks – if you live in NYC, or even if you do not, you can see TWELFTH NIGHT with Sandra Oh – PBS is going to be making the production available to everyone on November 14th at 9 p.m.

If you live in New York, you can go to the newly renovated Delcourte Theater in Central Park from August 7 to September 14, 2025 and line up to see if you can get the free tickets to that evening’s performance.

The cast is as follows: Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler-Fergusan, Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh, Daphne Rubin Vega, Junior Nyong’o, Khris Davis, John Ellison Conlee, Ariyan Kassam, Valentino Musumeci, Moses Sumney, Kapil Talkwalker, Joe Tapper, Dario Alvarez, Jaina Rose Jallow, Precious Omigie, Chinna Palmer, Nathan M. Ramsey, Jasmine Sharma, Julian Tushabe, Adrian Villegas, Ada Westfall, and Mia Wurgaft.

You can go to the immersive re-imagined Phantom of the Opera, called MASQUERADE at 218 W.57th Street and see Anna Zavelson, Telly Leung, Raymond J. Lee, Riley Noland, Francesca Mehrotra, and Satomi Hoffman. This cast includes former Phantoms and Christines from the Broadway production run, and is all enclosed in a 5 story renovated building – redone to resemble the Paris Opera House.

Cocktail dress and masquerade mask are required, while there will be complimentary mask available as well as available to purchase. It is a 21 and over ‘event’, but guests 16 and up will be allowed to attend during special performances during previews. They ask that high heels not be worn, as part of the experience is the Paris Catacombs under the Opera house.

You will be planted right into the plot of the show and Diane Paulus (Waitress, 1776, Porgy and Bess, Pippin, Jagged Little Pill) is directing. Ms. Paulus is of Japanese and American descent. She directed it! The whole thing!

Quite a lot of representation of all kinds in that cast – so, likely it is time for theater to give it up to the female directors, who have been KILLING it for the past twenty years with very little recognition.

TFP is talking Leigh Siverman, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Whitney White, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Tina Landau, Rachel Chavkin, Lucy Moss, Sammi Cannold, May Andrales, Marianne Elliot and many more

You can see Keanu Reeves – on Broadway! In Waiting for Godot!

Opening September 28th at The Hudson Theater.

Previews begin Sept 13 and they have a hard out on January 4, 2026.

Currently he is ‘our’ only lead on the Bway, so …go and see him if you can afford the tickets.

TFP just checked and they go from about $480-$900.

All the representation- none of the discounts.

Welp, we shall see if AANHPIs buy those tix…but TFP is not optimistic.

You could ALSO go see Alec Mapa – who actually was in the Original Broadway Company with Francis Jue of M. Butterfly – perform his upcoming comedy special on Sunday July 27th at 7 pm. The show will be at The Cutting Room, 44 E32nd Street, NYC NY 10016 and tickets are available here.

You can also go see JOY! The musical Off Broadway and check out Jaygee Macapugay, last seen in the cast of SUFFS on Broadway – which will be running until August 17, 2025.

She plays Joy’s Father’s new Girlfriend, Lorraine – as Joy invents the Miracle Mop.

Finally, If you have some extra cash but no time to attend right now, you could also throw some money towards actor David Lee Huynh, who is workshopping a play – https://givebutter.com/2eWUM3

Ok that is it, and TFP is outta here, enjoy your summer and your last days of Democracy while we watch all our rights be taken away by a House and Congress and SCOTUS who delight in cruelty and enabling a sociopath.

Cheers!

Tags Alec Mapa, anna-zavelson, Broadway, dei, Diversity, Francis Jue, immersive-theater, jaygee-macapuguay, joy-the-musical, ken-davenport, masquerade, musical, news, primarily-white-institution, Raymond J. Lee, reviews, riley-noland, sandra oh, Telly Leung, The Public Theater, the-cutting-room, Theatre

Categories Diversity

No one can ‘make’ you sing…

May 9, 2025 //

The Fairy Princess was going about her day here in the dystopian hellscape that is the American theater/country and as she does, she often wonders “What fresh hell will be unleashed today?” As always, the news pudits prove her right at some point during the day.

Though she is encouraged by the election of Pope Leo XIV, an American from the Southside of Chicago. A dual citizen of Peru and the USA, shethinks he has the cajones to take on the current administration – he has degrees in mathematics from Villanova and in canon law, bravi tutti– Go Pope Leo! (please don’t make her shake her head in rage at you at any point with warped views on LGBTQIA+ or women. Ahem, she means, Amen) She should also point out, he was elected by the most diverse conclave, ever – and apparently this is what the world wants, let America – poor old battered Lady Liberty – catch the lifeline the church is attempting to throw at them – because this ‘first hundred days’ feels like a thousand.

Besides the cancelling of the National Endowment of the Arts, and Elmo, and all the other ways in which people who speak their minds who also happen to be artists are being threatened financially in a blanket mass defunding, the takeover of The Kennedy Center is one of the most egregious and early thrusts of the GOP sword into people who have the ability to think for themselves. The country watched in horror as beloved artists and shows that are guaranteed to make money for TKC either withdrew or were cancelled.

We, and by ‘we’, TFP means America, were told that there would be somewhat of a Make Musicals Great Again movement, and only what the Administration deemed ‘wholesome’ and ‘reflecting family values’ would be shown there.

Hamilton withdrew themselves.

Other shows like Finn were cancelled almost immediately.

Board members Shonda Rhimes, Ben Folds, Rhiannon Giddens, Reneè Flemming and many more, resigned.

You know what is most egregious about the cancellation of Finn? The Kennedy Center commissioned it in 2023.

TFP joked with her friends that musicals would be re-written and she tossed around titles like, “Annie get your AK-47”, “Oklahomophbic”, “Kool-AidJuice”, “Toupeè”, “Underage Girls”, “Hands on a Trans Body” or “JD Vance, Tiny Red Dwarf Star” – you get her meaning. (Have fun with those).

We saw ‘theater people’ of all kinds – even in the military, ‘protest’ this administration and sing from Les Miserablés, and the world applauded and wondered when people were actually going to do something. Like, when – the world asks – are Americans going to re-claim democracy from kleptocracy? When are elected officials on both sides going to rise up (sing that Hamilton clip here please)? When do seated elected officials relinquish their ‘proximity to power’ in favor of common human decency?

When, oh when, do the members of Congress and the Senate universally acknowledge that letting a businessman known for his lack of concern for his employees, the safety of his customers, and his blatant amorality was a grift of the highest order?

The American public knew prior to the ‘salute’, but it seems like some still choose to stick their heads in the sand. They let it continue – so now the man who lets people burn to death in cars is out to steal Senior’s Social Security to pay for billionaire’s sending their friends to space.

When is the revolution?

We may have to wait a while.

Particularly when it comes to places that Artists have effectively ‘lost’, like, The Kennedy Center.

The cast of Les Miserablés is booked to perform at The Kennedy Center from June 11th – July 23rd.

The first evening was to be a gala fundraiser for The Kennedy Center. The performers were given the option to NOT sing that evening for the fundraiser as the POTUS will attend. In response to the news that 10-12 cast members have chosen not to perform on June 11th, newly appointed Director of the Kennedy Center Richard Grenfell released this statement:

“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed. In fact, we think it would be important to ‘out’ those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire – and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience. The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for, but instead enjoys a performance together.”

Which, is a threat.

It is also important to note that threatening people who sing and dance for a living has to put one on the fast pass to the Hadestown that is NOT the musical, but TFP digresses. Please go ride your patriarchy pony elsewhere, Sir, we want none of that nonsense in the theater, thank you!

It is important to note that giving the option to not perform for that particular fundraiser would have been a decision made by the producers of that show.

Actors took the option. They did not release a statement, they did not infringe on the ability to sell tickets – they simply opted out. They took the offer presented – even though they do not then get paid for that show. They took a financial, personal ‘hit’, because they just could not – and it is completely within their rights to do so.

Given that the current administration is openly hostile to LGBTQIA+ and women, it is not a surprise to anyone that some artists would choose not to perform for those patrons who enable hate. Those patrons coming on ‘overpriced fundraiser day’ to demonstrate their fealty to the giant orange have actively tried to hurt people in this country. This very exclusive crowd with their votes and with their funding – they paid for all the things to be put in place that we see across this nation – defunding veterans benefits, taking history out of school, trying to close libraries and eliminating health care in rural areas, refusing to pay for feeding children at schools….this audience is made up of people who wanted that to happen.

How do you sing about revolution for over two hours for a smug crowd who laughs and delights at cruelty? Who revel in the news that American citizens have been deported and terrorized to foreign countries? That people who do not appear Caucasian are regularly attacked on the streets for no reason other than they are not Caucasian?

Look at the words of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” –

How could you bring yourself to sing to an audience about standing up to tyranny when they are extreme bigots with endless financial power who will pay for the active subjugation of the American public?

It is ONE performance for an audience full of Marjorie Taylor Greenes.

A regular audience is always a mixed bag – no performer goes out on stage and says “Well, I am only singing for Democrats and Independents” – That is not how ‘this’ works. Ever. NO performer does that.

But a fundraiser? Where ticket prices are $2 MILLION dollars and you get a photo with POTUS?

People who will pay $2 Million dollars to sit through a musical they do not understand just to get a photo with the Orange?

So the company members who were OFFERED a chance to skip the show, chose to take the option….

…and they are now being threatened with career termination.

Some Producers that are on and about ‘The Broadway’ are not liberal and left leaning.

This ‘threat’ could be quite crippling to those performers, and yes, there could be retaliation. As we have seen amplified in this Administration, if you have money, you can do anything to anyone without consequences. Singers who do do musicals set in 1815-1832 in France, kind of a nichè career, so yes, they could absolutely be in a tight bind when this tour ends.

In the name of Sondheim – if we are having a McCarthy era redux, TFP feels that we should have had more of a warning.

(Oh wait, we DID, they published their project, but no one thought it mattered. Now they are hauling off elected officials in New Jersey who are out and about performing their duties, literally hauling them off.)

As much as the current Administration bullies and attempts to bend the laws to benefit their pocketbooks, there will always be those whose moral compass will not allow them internal peace if they go along with what they have been ordered to do.

There are people who will say no.

It is the people who will say no, who will save this country.

Look at Harvard, they said no, and then sent it back with the errors circled in red ink!

Slay all day, Crimson!

They are singing every night for the French values of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, – which mean, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity – and you expect them to ‘shut up and sing’ for that fundraising audience? That particular one?

Performers are more than Broadway tune singing bots. They are individuals with agency. They get to choose who they sing for – their talent is not guaranteed for the price of a ticket. No one can ‘make’ anyone sing who chooses not to – and their Producers are smart to offer an alternative – not that TFP thinks anyone would sink the show on purpose – that is just not in performer DNA.

All that is guaranteed by a ticket is a show – and the show will go on regardless.

It is called “understudies’ and ‘covers’, and the show will go on.

The Administration wanted their ‘show ponies’ – they may not get them. That cast is chock full of amazing talent – a show will be performed nontheless. They bought a ticket to Les Miserablès – and that show will be seen.

As to the Individuals who will not be onstage that night – TFP salutes you.

To be publicly threatened and still stand up is a courage TFP wishes on members of Congress and the Senate, who KNOW that what is happening in our country is wrong, and who still sit, enabling it.

Never forget, that for as many conservative Producers who will take directives from a Government, there are just as many if not more, who will not. You will work again after this tour, TFP is sure that someone in Chicago knows how to get the new guy on speed dial.

It will be ok. For a while it might not be. However, the attention spans are short, something else will distract them, and all will go on, just like Cèline Dion sang.

We salute you!

“Vive la révolution”

Tags Broadway, kennedy center, Les Miserables, music, musicals, new pope, news, pope, Pope Leo XIV, review, reviews, Theatre, trump

Categories Diversity

BroadwayCon Panels – you asked, we are serving …

February 1, 2025 //

The Fairy Princess has admittedly been spending time on the clock app to get her messages out, and she has not been blogging.

Ok, Ok, Ok!

She’s had a lot on her plate. However since we in America are rolling the clock waaaay back to the 1600’s in terms of rights for everyone, and allowing billionaires free range within a house that was built by Black Americans, and since she expects we shall all be speaking Russian soon, while simultaneously being told we are NOT speaking Russian – she figured she would get back to writing.

Why? Well, frankly – when President Biden was in office, TFP did not have a concern. He was a man who had a great team of people around him, who were interested in improving lives coming out of a global pandemic. This is not the case with current man in the office, nor his under-educated minions who are making their personal cruelty, national policy.

Which is a direct challenge to Artists of all kinds.

Therefore TFP will be joining the fight like Mulan’s father, reluctantly, knowing it is her duty, but possibly she might fall on her ass because of an old injury. She has the blood of Irish protesters in her, and she is not afraid – even though perhaps she should be.

So let it be said, so let it be done.

However, before that – she has 4 – 3 she is directly moderating and curated – panels at BroadwayCon that should be heard. She will live stream them on her Instagram for those who are geographically unable to be there – and her ‘handle’ on the Insta is: @erinquill (She is also going to try and live stream on the Official Erin Quill FB page – but she only has one phone, so it depends on her “Asst” for the day)

The first panel is on Saturday Feb 8 @ 4:30pm

On Sunday Feb. 9 at 12pm

TFP will be talking with today’s hottest Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Playwrights and a Director about what it takes to get a piece to New York.

She will be talking with Director Ralph B. Peńa, and Playwrights Lisa Sanaye Dring (Sumo), Rehana Lew Mirza (Bhangin’ it) and Philip W. Chung (My Man Kono).

On SUNDAY FEB 9 at 12 noon

SUNDAY FEB 9 at 2pm

She will be joining the PUPPETRY ON BROADWAY panel, probably because they FELT (get it) she might have experience in this area….

However TFP finds Puppeteers delightful so…

And finally, on Sunday Feb 9 at 3:15pm

GONE TOO SOON: Talking with Cast Members and a Producer of TAMMY FAYE, SWEPT AWAY & LEMPIKA –

Panney Wei (Producer, Lempika) Natalie Joy Johnson (Lempika), Autum Hurlbert (Tammy Faye), Nick Bailey (Tammy Faye), Rico Le Bron (Swept Away), Robert Pendilla (Swept Away)

As TFP said, she will try to live stream as much as she can, on the panels she is ‘in charge of’ – she has no idea about the Puppetry panel, and what will be allowed.

So that will be that, for February.

After BwayCon, TFP returns to teaching and directing and all the things – carrying copies of her ‘papers’ around in case she gets detained by authority figures who do not know what a mixed race American citizen looks like – because after all, they detained 3 American citizens who were simply speaking in Spanish...however, here is what she wants to say.

The cruelty that has been demonstrated in January IS the point.

The overload of ‘us’ having to fight EVERY day for the rights of our Trans friends and family IS the point.

The questioning of Americans in a bombastic way by people who have been imbued with authority and weapons IS the point.

Scaring children – specifically brown children, but all children of color – is the point.

The taking away of birthright citizenship is the point.

“Revenge investigations’ are the point – and do you know why?

All because people did not care to vote. Close to 90 MILLION Americans of voting eligible age did not vote. Not registered voters- people who were eligible to register and vote, they did not bother to.

Forget MAGA and the hard core racists that enabled his limited win – it wasn’t ‘them’ that allowed the win – and yes, TFP said ‘allowed’.

It was the people who actively did not choose to vote that enabled this hell that we have only begun to live through.

It was people who voted for Jill Stein – who never appears during the intervening years but who always mysteriously pops up right before a close election so people’s morals can vote, even though they know we have a two party system and third party voting throws away their actual chance to make a difference.

It was people who, it must be said, told folks to NOT vote for Ms Harris for a variety of reasons that mean nothing now as we all ‘find out’ together how truly awful it can be.

Now, does TFP – having looked at footage of speeches where it seems there was…shenanigans – think that this was a ‘true’ win?

She does not have enough factual evidence to say for sure…however there have been moments where she has seen footage that seems to suggest trickery in reporting results.

She is pretty sure the Orange said ‘someone’ who invests in companies and takes credit for the work done, like he’s some sort of genius rather than an illegal immigrant himself (arriving on a student visa and then not attending school) – yes, he said he had ‘help’ in a public forum, but even with that ‘confession; no one it seems, is launching an investigation into that.

Because there is a convicted felon in the White House.

Regardless – we can keep our personal peace and still refuse to be intimidated by these blowhards. It is possible, and that is what TFP is going to try and do.

She may not always be successful. She may have bad days once in a while, but then she will gather her ovaries around her and get back up again – because to cow us ALL into accepting this utter chaos will not begin with her.

A few things before we go –

Congratulations to Pulitzer Prize Nominee, Performance Artist Kristina Wong on her ENGAGEMENT – may you have a long and happy life together with tons of health insurance!

Congratulations to Zach Piser on being in previews for his latest show on Broadway, playing Spencer in REDWOOD, a new musical alongside Idina Menzel.

Directed by Tina Landau – may it have a long and happy run.

We are going to move forward, we are going to see theater – we are going to go and see SUMO at The Public Theater and My Man Kono at Pan Asian Rep – we are going to advocate for one another because that is the path forward – the only one that leads us forward. We are going to go out in the neighborhood and turn GOP seats to blue and take back the House and eventually the Senate.

Sit back and listen to some show tunes if you get discouraged…it helps.

WE are going to do that, because no one person can do it alone.

You voted because you wanted the best for all of us, and you thought America was ready for the Lawyer who has always performed with distinction and dignity, but you did not realize how deep misogyny and racism lay in this country?

Well, TFP too.

She is tired too.

But she is going to keep on keeping on – and as they say in SUFFS – Keep marching.

TFP out.

Tags @davidhenryhwang, @francisjue, @shannontyo, Activism, articles, autumhurlbert, book-reviews, books, Broadway, broadwaycon2025, engaged, erin quill, idinamenzel, Kristina Wong, lisa-sanaye-dring, musicals, my-man-kono-play, nataliejoyjohnson, news, nickbailey, panneywei, Philip C. Chung, politics, ralph-b-pena, redwoodmusical, rehana-lew-mirza, ricolebron, robertpendilla, suffs, sumo-play, sweptawaymusical, sweptawaymusical, tammyfayemusical, The Public Theater, tinalandau, writer, yellow-face-play, zachpiser

Categories Diversity

DHH and the Met, Florida Man strikes again, Congrats to Airbender and keep watching Warrior!

February 25, 2024 //

TFP has seen Warrior on Netflix go up to #6, and currently it is down to #8. The Last Airbender remake is currently at #1 – Congratulations to all. TFP doesn’t mind admitting that some of her very dear friends worked on The Last Airbender, and hey – they served.

However, back to Warrior. We need a Season 4 – because we need to KNOW what happened to the stories we were following at the end of Season 3. Thus, as TFP told you – keep an ipad or a tv in another room running on Netflix. Personally TFP has one on in the kitchen, which she runs without sound, but tuned in because she wants to see how it all works out! This support she gives the show is purely selfish, she just is crazy about it.

Congrats to Tony winning playwright – David Henry Hwang who wrote the libretto (that is ‘the book’ for the Broadway crowd) , AINADAMAR, which he wrote with GRAMMY Award winning Argentinian composer, Osvaldo Golijov, will premiere at…hold on THE METROPOLITAN OPERA in the 2024-2025 season!

This is Mr. Golijov’s first opera – and it dramatizes the life of the poet-playwright Ferderico Garcia Lorca (House of Bernarda Alba, anyone?) who was assassinated by Fascist forces at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Why, you ask? Because he was a Socialist and a Homosexual.

The story is told through his muse, Catalan actress Margarita Xirgu, as she recounts the tale to her student, Nuria. Lorca appears as a dreamlike persona and is sung as a ‘pants role’ – aka a mezzo dressed as a man. Directed and choreographed by Brasilian Deborah Colker (best known for her work with Cirque du Soleil) – this looks incredible.

If you cannot get to New York – you can go see live broadcasts-

Also – do you know how HARD it is to get a new opera up and running, much less premiering at one of the world’s most revered stages? It is beyond impossible- and yet, there is DHH quietly doing the work. Showing up, writing, creating, teaching at Columbia, mentoring – and best of all, collaborating with others of like mind.

May they get all the flowers and world premieres available to them, TFP is honored to know him.

Is this Mr. Hwang’s first opera?

No.

He also wrote the libretto for Icarus at the Edge of Time with Brian Greene, music by Philip Glass. The Fly, where he wrote with composer Howard Shore – based on the 1986 film. Alice in Wonderland with Unsuk Chin, based on the novel and premiered in 2007 in Bavaria – where it was hailed as the “World Premiere of the Year”. The Silver River, based on a 4000 year old Chinese story about forbidden love between a Goddess and a mortal, where he worked with composer Bright Sheng. In 1992, he wrote the libretto on commission from The Met for The Voyage, music by Philip Glass, and again with Mr. Glass and Jerome Sirlin, in 1998, he wrote 1000 Airplanes.

TFP got her Certification in Opera Direction from Ithaca College in May, so she is very excited to see this production.

Congrats to BD Wong as he stars in the play, BIG DATA, at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater – he plays M, a lively personification of the technology we use regularly.

This looks super fun and, frankly, BD has great taste – if he is choosing to do a play and you are in the area? You should get a ticket.

Now, we are going to turn our attention to…Florida.

Yes, TFP knows. However, a lot of theater happens in Florida and that is because there are a lot of people who retire there – and retired people who have means, go to theater. Are there more matinees in Florida? Very likely, or at least, earlier curtain times during the week.

Recently in Florida, the American Stage Theater had an incident where they were producing Lloyd Suh‘s The Chinese Lady, giving it it’s Florida premiere. TFP wants to explain that Playwrights really only make money when their plays are up and running – so for American Stage to take the step to produce it, is great. TFP holds Lloyd in great esteem, and she did ask him for a statement, which, if he responds, she will insert in this piece.

The Chinese Lady is about Afong Moy, who is allegedly the first Chinese woman to step on U.S. soil in 1834, when she was 14 – some descriptions of the her place her at 16 years old. She is placed on display – yes, that is what TFP said – and for the next 50 years, she performs for curious white people. She had bound feet, and the ticket buying public could not get enough.

In 2022 it was presented in a co-production by Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Barrington Stage at NY’s Public Theater. It starred Shannon Tyo and Daniel K. Issac, let’s hear from them, as they are the ‘OG’s”…

Shannon just was awarded this past year’s OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement in Theater, just fyi.

Now, let’s hear from Daniel, whose work on BILLIONS has made him a household name.

Please note what Daniel said about showing history – this play portrays a little known piece of both American and Chinese history, which took place in America, and makes it one of the first pieces of Asian American history.

It is often said that if we do not know history, we are doomed to repeat it. Florida is conservative Marco Rubio country – the land of COVID denial, they have taken a stand against the teaching of Black history in America – and as we all know, Black History IS American history – and that is the tip of the iceberg in terms of their batshit crazy that seems to be ‘just a Wednesday’, down there.

They also have Disneyland and Universal Studios. So it is a land of chaos.

TFP has friends that now feel unsafe to go to Florida for performance jobs, and she does not blame them at all. She has had friends move their lives to live there, only to spend time there and come racing back to New York even with the taxes. They could not take the bigotry and they, were not minorities.

Is Florida hostile to minorities? Yes. It is. Is everyone in Florida like this? No, of course not.

Therefore when initial rumblings came out of Florida, and from American Stage with this statement,

TFP was confused – what had happened?

Now, Actors are excitable people and the initial recounting of what happened was concerning – an Actor was fired for wearing a keffiyeh at curtain call. Cue the multiple reactions. Very hyperbolic.

This is not what happened.

TFP is going to repeat – this is not what happened.

The Keffiyeh was worn along with an ink on chest tatoo which read “Free Palestine” and was present for the last 3-5 minutes of the show. During the course of the play. Starting, as stated by the Director, on page 40 of the play. The play ends at page 41.

The Actor was not fired. The actor was placed on hold, aka they were not allowed on the stage or in the theater because they inserted a political message into a play that is already political, and subverted the intention of the Playwright. The Actor in question is still being paid their full wage.

The issue for the theater, one supposes, is trust.

The Actor has lost the trust of the Producers.

Does TFP think it is an over-reaction?

Did the Actor do this alone? No. The Director thought of it, and without telling Production, Designers, or the other Actors in the piece, on the Wednesday of the last week of the run, inserted it without rehearsal and did it intentionally to be an act of agitation. In fact, they cited where it was to occur – page 40 – in the play on a message board.

Screenshot of a text message **TFP** was sent.

TFP was tagged in it, and this is her response. She took off the Director’s name, but it is their response to a question.

TFP has worked in a lot of places as an Actor, a few as a Director, and even more as a Producer – she knows that the place for her personal expression is after the show. She has been on panels after a show and actually been encouraged to speak and express views – and that is the correct place for it – not until the story on the stage is complete and actors are out of wardrobe.

Do not be mistaken that this is a “Noble Call” moment a la HAMILTON speaking to Mike Pence from the stage. In that case, the show was over, the bows were taken – and the Production Team endorsed and co-wrote the words the Actor spoke to the Then Vice President of the Orange one’s reign.

Production was consulted. They all agreed to take the moment.

They took this “Noble Call” concept from the Irish Theater tradition of, AFTER the show is done, they talk about a current political moment – this concept is hundreds of years old. It takes place AFTER the bows. It oftimes has guests to speak to these points. People who are experts at the subject.

What happened at American Stage was not a Noble Call. No one was consulted. No one was prepped. No one here was an expert in geo-politics.

This is not the story that the playwright wanted to tell, in a play that is already political. This is American history representing the outsider-ness that Chinese people and by extension all Asian groups as we all are perceived to ‘look alike’ – it is enough of a message.

Because we still experience it. In this, the Year of the Wooden Dragon, 2024, we still experience it.

It is because we do still experience it, we have murders at a day spa, we have murders in apartment buildings, we have our elders beaten to death or grave injury in public spaces and no one comes to help – we have the largest single lynching in US History, and we have an entire group of concentration camp survivors whose relatives are still processing what happened to them. We have people who are mistaken for other members within the Asian diaspora and are beaten to death – performing a play with Asian heritaged actors that was directed by an Asian American and written by an Asian American in and of itself, is a form of protest.

We still need the following hashtag to remind people to treat us as people!

Asian American history is enough. The act was done because the Director and the Actor did not trust that the play was enough. That’s it. They did not trust the play. The kick in the pants is that both of the people in question, have Asian heritage.

TFP knows this because she has the screenshot from the director responding on a public message board. She has it, it is in her phone – however she thinks the best thing to do is not put these ‘Chaos Monsters’ on blast on a blog that has international reach – because, they seem young. The response on the message board uses hyperbolic language about how devastated this Director is – and yet, the theater which is – yes, run by white people – is honestly handling it correctly.

Sometimes, white people can do that.

She personally would have suspended the actor for one show and had the Director in for a discussion about parameters. However, trust had been broken – and this Director has, by their own admission – less interest in directing a play, and more in causing chaos.

There is nothing wrong with chaos or ‘good trouble’ – but there are venues for that – nightclubs, performance art spaces, marches, rallies, instagram and social media – all of those are where we express our personal feelings. All of those were available to the Director and the Performer.

We do not go to a subscription based house who does not have an history of producing works by Asian Americans in super conservative St. Petersburg, and destroy whatever community feelings are invested because our inner chaos monster needs to be fed. We particularly do not go into a Union house and subvert the ways in which things are designed to run and decide we know better, if we are under the age of 35. Do you think this theater will now be looking to produce other works by Asian American playwrights and in fact, hire Asian American directors and casts because of this experience?

The Patriarchy is super happy about this, one imagines.

If what you want to do is protest art – then write your own piece so we all know exactly where you stand.

TFP loves protest art – this blog is a form of protest, and she has taken the hits for it since she began writing it 12 years ago. She has been banned, she has been canceled, she has had vitriol directed directly to her and her Family – yes she has, but it is HER work. She stands by it.

If you want to make political parallels about what is happening in this play and what is currently happening – have a talk-back after the show. Answer questions from the audience. It is not that theater does not allow room for political discussion – but the playwright has the right to have their work done as written. That is what the contract says – by word and deed you do not change the play.

You do not get to steal context from a writer.

Every play is a form of protest. Every word, every written in pause – it has been labored over again and again.

What happened here is that the Director and the Actor decided they knew better than the Writer, than Production, and than the rest of the Company. It’s hubris. Just because it is AA hubris, does not mean it is not.

The theater has rules and the theater makes allowances for differences of opinion, but those rules are in place to protect people. Overall, it is the mission of the Director to safeguard the Playwright’s work, and guide the actors – and that was not done here.

No care to safeguard the Playwright was taken by this Director, so Management had to step forward and do it.

If you were a Playwright, and someone inserted themselves in your play – something you had work on for years and sweated over, and stayed up late over, endless cups of coffee and multiple investments by theater companies to keep it going – how would you feel?

Imagine how Lloyd Suh feels.

FFS don’t be this kind of Florida Man either.

Finally, TFP wishes to extend her condolences to the Family and Friends of 16 year old Indigenous descended, Non Binary person, Nex Benedict. Nex was attacked in their High School bathroom by three older female students, who enacted extreme violence upon their person, and Nex succumbed to those injuries after the fact.

Nex’s Mother, Sue, is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation, and they were living on a Cherokee Reservation, where Nex was in school.

May Their Spirit Rest.

TFP out.

Tags dhh, florida, gregory-keng-strasser, Lloyd Suh, music-and-arts, news, reviews, the-chinese-lady, the-met, Theater

Categories Diversity

Let’s get Netflix to spring for Warrior Season 4 – and other wins prove this coming Bway year is the most Asian ever (in a year with no shows set in Asia)

February 20, 2024 //

The Fairy Princess, as anyone who reads this blog knows, is a huge fan of the series, WARRIOR.

Why you ask? She loves a good martial arts series with Asian heritaged actors – some from England, some from Australia, Indonesia, Canada, and many from the Downtown NY Scene and from Broadway as well. In short – it is a series where both her Irish heritage and Chinese heritage come together and give her severe anxiety and yet, enjoyment.

TFP is complicated.

Now, WARRIOR has bounced around quite a bit – first Cinemax and then HBO and now…Netflix.

Netflix is going to bring about a huge global fan base for this show – much in the way that Peaky Blinders did to it’s cast. This series is a giant one for AAPI’s and that is because it comes from…the Bruce.

Yes, this is Bruce Lee‘s vision, as brought to life by his daughter, Shannon Lee. In this show we see the origin of the Chinese in America, but we also see mixed race people, because as we know, Bruce was Mixed Asian AND Mixed Asian people are always going to be around as long as different groups intertwine.

What is magical about this show is that they have built the ‘origin’ stories of the mixed race characters into the show, and then left it. Ah Sam, played by Andrew Koji, makes reference to his American Grandfather, and boom, there it is. Young Jun, played by Jason Tobin, is the result of a relationship his father, Father Jun, played by Perry Yung, had with a white prostitute. In fact, Mixed race Asians are a plot point all around, with Wang Chao’s daughter and supporting her, being a major plot point for the character played by Hoon Lee.

All of it makes dramatic sense as they go through the show. Now, there are three seasons already on Netflix, however fans NEED a fourth season – perhaps even a fifth, and there IS a way to get it. That way is interest. We need to get WARRIOR to Number 1 for a a few weeks. It is currently at #6.

So TFP is going to tell you her strategy – she also used this with The Brothers Sun on Netflix, and she is going to ask that you all follow suit. Why? Season 4 baby – the producers say it depends on how Netflix responds to the numbers for the show. If we can get it to Number 1 for say, a month – TFP is pretty sure a Season 4 will be ordered.

This is her strategy – she leaves the television on WARRIOR when she is at home at all times. Numbers cannot be faked – well they likely can but she does not know how as she is not a criminal, she just enjoys shows about criminals – and she is willing to give over her screen to a show that she has already watched. If you have more than one television/ipad/laptop you can devote to this, then great! And if you don’t, TFP appreciates your devotion.

Keeping on the theme of Bruce Lee, have you all realized that his goddaughter, Diana Lee Inosanto, has joined the Star Wars Universe on the cast of Ahsoka on Disney Plus?

She is making her rounds of all of the conventions right now, and seemingly having the best of all possible times. You can follow her on Insta – @therealdianaleeinosanto . She has also written a children’s book on autism with her son, Sebastian, as well as being the writer/director/star of the indie film, The Sensei.

In addition to Ahsoka, in her latest role, she voices Horse in The Tiger’s Apprentice, alongside Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Brandon Soo Hoo, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Leah Lewis, Deborah S. Craig, Sherry Cola, and Kheng Hua Tan.

The Tiger’s Apprentice is streaming on Paramount Plus.

Turning to Broadway, much mention must be made for the Broadway debut of Lola Tung, from The Summer I Turned Pretty, in Hadestown. She is playing Eurydice – the same part that was originated by Eva Noblezada (who is heading towards the opening of The Great Gatsby on Broadway with lightening speed). This image is from the Hadestown Insta account, and in terms of performance, TFP thinks it is best to let your ears do the listening.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hadestown (@hadestown)

She and Jordan Fisher nail it, it is quite exciting – so many congratulations to them, may it have an SRO.

Last but certainly not least – in anyone’s mind – is the upcoming Broadway debut of former Pussycat Doll, Nicole Scherzinger – just announced.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sunset Boulevard (@sunsetblvdmusical)

This looks entirely different from any other Sunset Blvd in recent memory – but in the best way – AND, this proves TFP‘s point that this coming season – that this year, the year of the Wooden Dragon – will be the MOST Asian Broadway has ever been in a season with no show set in Asia!

TFP out.

Tags Broadway, Bruce Lee, diana-lee-inosanto, film, hadestown, lola-tung, netflix, news, nicole-scherzinger, shannon-lee, sunset-blvd, tv, warrior

Categories Diversity

Warrior Sisters of Wu opens at Pan Asian Rep, 1st Asian Orpheus in Hadestown, 1st AsAm Velma Kelly in Chicago

February 12, 2024 //

The Fairy Princess wishes you a Happy New Year – whether you call it Lunar, Chinese, Tet, or Seollal (Japan does not celebrate Lunar New Year since 1873) – have some noodles, dance with a lion, and let’s just be glad that pesky bunny is gone in favor of the Wood Dragon. TFP had an pretty awful 2023, so 2024 does not need to do any heavy lifting, per se – just not be as awful as 2023. The bar, as they say, is low.

Speaking of which, she is doing a concert at 54 Below on March 16 at 9:30pm- day before St. Patrick’s Day called Mom’s Night Out, where your favorite musical theater Mama’s dazzle audiences with their songs and stories about the journey that is motherhood. Megan Minutillo is the producing mama puttin’ it all together, so a thanks for the invite, and TFP will see you in March. (Use the code MOM5 for $ off your dining and bar tab) Tix here.

Now, there have been some kind of amazing things happening for AAPI’s in Musical Theater around the globe, as well as in Mid town Manhattan, and TFP wanted to discuss.

First off – Congratulations to Shannon Tyo, who won at the 67th OBIE Awards for Sustained Performance in Achievement for her role as Mora in Lloyd Suh‘s THE FAR COUNTRY at The Atlantic Theater Company.

Congrats on their OBIE to Hansol Jung for The Wolf Play, who won for playwriting here is their acceptance speech.

The King & I is playing in London for a limited time, and starring Darren Lee as The King!

He plays opposite Call The Midwife‘s star, Helen George – and frankly, TFP is down for it – reports from friends are great and reviews are better. Only for 6 weeks – if you are popping across the pond, here is your ticket link.

Let’s start with the most recent of events in New York City – last evening at HADESTOWN on Broadway, TIMOTHY H. LEE went on for Orpheus for the first time – meaning he is the FIRST Orpheus of Asian heritage to play the role.

TFP is including the Artist’s Instagram posts- these moments, though huge globally, remains personal.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Timothy H. Lee 이해찬 (@tim_haechanlee)

Is this huge? Yes. Does TFP get tired of counting firsts? Also yes. When we stop needing to count in order to justify our existence on stage and screen TFP will be fully satisfied.

TFP extends hearty congratulations to Mr. Lee – who immigrated from Korea, and considers English to be his second language. This is an enormous accomplishment by any standard, and it is fitting, that Hadestown, which has always been an inclusive and diverse cast under the direction of Rachel Chavkin, crossed this barrier willingly.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kristen Faith Oei (@dragonfly02)

Likewise attention must be turned to CHICAGO on Broadway where Kristen Faith Oei became the first Asian American to play Velma Kelly. She also goes on for Miss Katlin Hunyak in addition to covering the role of Velma. Currently CHICAGO has Lili Thomas playing Matron Mama Morton, and Fil-Am Red Concepciòn as Mr. Amos Hart aka Mr. Cellophane. They also had Japanese star Ryoko Yonekura as Roxie Hart in 2012. CHICAGO is combining ‘old’ Broadway with some much needed upgrades. Bravo!

Also, many salutations to Courtney Reed, who is currently starring as Satine in Moulin Rogue. You likely know her from her long running role as Princess Jasmine in ALADDIN on Broadway, and as one of the stars of Lauren Yee‘s CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, but she has been holding down Satine first on tour in 2022, and now on Broadway since August of 2023. Go see her, she is delightful – and hey – Boy George is there too.

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A post shared by Courtney Reed (@rhodesreed)

Some celebrate Lunar New Year by eating and hanging with family, while others take their families to see theater at Pan Asian Rep in New York City. (The others is TFP) Now in it’s almost unheard of 47th Season under the Artistic Direction of NY legend, Tisa Chang – they premiered their latest play – Warrior Sisters of Wu yesterday, Superbowl Sunday.

Adapted from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ one of the most famous Chinese classic tales, it has very few English language adaptations, which is of course, why Playwright Damon Chua chose it as his next project. (Why pick easy?) He paired that with a framework in his head of the English classic, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

The result is a Family friendly Rom Com from 200 A.D., with swords. TFP‘s son really enjoyed this – and as a parent, it is beyond a relief to be able to take him to the theater, have a genuine story be told, and to hear his responses, again, TFP wants to stress, her son really enjoyed this.

We follow the Qiao sisters, best known nowadays in their modern avatars as characters in the Dynasty Warriors video game series, as they fall in love and kick ass against the backdrop of impending war. Ably directed by LA staple, Jeff Liu paired with deft fight choreography by Michael G. Chin – it is one to see.

One only hopes that the impending snow storm takes it easy on New York so they get the crowd they deserve.

Pictured in the photo, Director Jeff Liu, Liam Kong, and Damon Chua.

It is hard, as a New York based actor, to truly have words about what the steadiness of Pan Asian Rep has done for the New York AAPI Actor. Much as East West Players in Los Angeles has been sometimes the lone flag waving in the distance to give us hope – Pan Asian has – for 47 seasons – been there. Telling AAPI stories, encouraging them, commissioning them, holding workshops, and helping shape the ways ‘we’ get to be seen. Over the years they have offered classes, mentorship, and hope – Tisa was on Broadway in a show, and used her own money to start Pan Asian – and 47 seasons later, she is still there.

(If this were a Marvel show, we’d be calling her The Hand of AAPI Theater. It is a compliment.)

Warrior Sisters of Wu is a specifically Chinese story, told entirely in English, with modern sensibilities. Many of the questions TFP‘s 11 year old whispered in her ear, were answered seconds later in the dialogue and actions – he was seeing part of his own story told on a stage in front of him for 100 minutes.

When TFP was a child, the best her parents were able to show her in terms of a Chinese story starring Asian people, was taking her to see a troupe of martial artists and acrobats from China.

Did she still love it? Of course. However we cannot underestimate the value of younger minds at the theater, seeing versions of themselves that are ‘allowed’ to play different characters who have just as much dignity and gravitas as is often only allowed with white stories.

All stories can be told specifically and deliberately- it is that which makes the understanding of it universal.

TFP really hopes that the story told, that of two woman warriors who battle gender norms, gets butts in the seats, and gets the Lortels to sit up and notice.

The show is playing at the A.R.T./NY Mezzanine Theater – 502 W. 53RD STREET – go see it – running until MARCH 10th.

Tix link here

Ok, ok, ok – go Lion Dance and watch some fireworks – Happy Year of the Wood Dragon!

Hope you get rich!

Tags Broadway, Chicago, courtney-reed, damon-chua, hadestown, jeff-liu, kristen-faith-oei, michael-g-chin, moulin-rogue, musical, news, pan-asian-rep, Theater, tim_haechanlee, warrior-sisters-of-wu, year-of-the-dragon

Categories Diversity

DDK on the Old Broadway – DHH and The Roundabout brings YELLOW FACE (the play) to the Great White Way

January 9, 2024 //

TFP already wrote today…however, this is big and it goes along with some great strides being made in theater by AAPI performers, however it is equally met in the behind the scenes representation.

Daniel Dae Kim, who was last seen on Broadway in The King & I in 2016, will lead the production of YELLOWFACE written by Broadway’s only Asian American Tony Award winning Playwright – David Henry Hwang, who has returned from opera land and tv land to brave a post Covid Broadway. This was just announced for The Roundabout’s 2024-25 season.

Directed by DHH’s longtime collaborator, Leigh Silverman, this play, which is semi-autobiographical, deals with mounting a play and assuming that an actor is Mixed Race, and therefore is cast AS Asian American. TFP finds this fascinating because she remembers (everytime she says that to herself, she says it in a Game of Thrones “The North Remembers” kind of way) DHH’s play, Face Value. Anyway, being of mixed heritage herself and being told she ‘counted or did not count as Asian” depending on who was serving judgement, she has always been exhausted yet fascinated by this play.

DDK who has been heavily involved in producing for television over the last few years, began as an Actor – he holds an MFA from NYU, and TFP still recalls how powerful a presence he was in The Tempest at East West Players in Los Angeles. He is a very commanding stage actor, and she is really glad he is going to come back and trod the boards.

Likewise The Roundabout is also mounting TFP‘s FAVORITE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PIECE, The Pirates of Penzance, starring the Canadian born, Tony Nominee, Ramin Karimloo, who is of Western Asian Heritage, as The Pirate King. Most recently Mr. Karimloo was seen in the Broadway revival of FUNNY GIRL, but he has played The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera all over the world, likewise all the weighty male roles in Les Miserables.

This is fantastic news, because both these men are leads in their respective shows and it seems that this in some way, far too late, is The Roundabout‘s round a bout acknowledgement of using Brownface makeup on actors during their production of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD – which, was fairly egregious.

(Do not come at TFP for this, it was a giant ass mistake and yes, she knows it is a show within a show and so on – does not mean that browning up white performers to play people from Ceylon is acceptable. It was not then, it is not now.) (Also Ceylon is now Sri Lanka)

This was TONY winner Jessie Mueller and TONY Nominee Andy Karl at the Opening Night Party, here they are in the production:

Ahem.

To the point of ‘if they knew better, they would do better’, the NYGASP Production of THE MIKADO is once again up and running. Many years ago, one may remember that TFP’s coverage on the offensiveness of the production that they ran was the subject of a blog post after TFP had gone to see the production.

This led to all kinds of things – people were angry. Although they did a very interesting thing – they invited TFP to come speak on a panel about The Mikado to their subscribers. (If you saw the reaction to Jo Koy at The Golden Globes, it was a bit like that when TFP began speaking) At the end of the panel, it was announced that NYGASP was going to take a season and think about their production and try and amend it. TFP was invited to return when they ‘fixed’ it.

Honestly, TFP was shocked – but they DID fix it. They hired Broadway’s Kelvin Moon Loh to come in and help them imagine better. Kelvin is not just an insanely talented Broadway performer, he is a writer who has sold shows for development.

They added a scene that begins before the operetta, to explain how Gilbert imagined the production – and this was based on testimony from Gilbert himself as to how he imagined it. Then, they did outreach and expanded their company to include AAPI performers. AAPI performers who were not to be hired just for THE MIKADO, those who could join the rep company and add to what was happening there.

It is now, a very enjoyable MIKADO – which is almost impossible to say in the rest of the country – and therefore TFP presents you the ticket link, so that you may see for yourselves – it only runs till Jan 14th, but you have a whole three days to arrange your weekend, so get to stepping.

Also coming this week to Off Broadway, is the Jason Robert Brown piece, The Connector.

It’s new, and as far as TFP knows, is NOT about Jill Zarin.

It does however, have in it’s cast Sweeney Todd‘s Joanna Carpenter and Ann Sanders, most recently of Music Man and Dear Evan Hansen.

Which is exciting, and TFP has her tickets to a matinee, so she will get to see them and so many more folks that she knows and loves.

Just a reminder that it was stated by Ruthie Ann Miles that the reimagining of LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA directed by Chay Yew is looking for a theater. So we could wind up, New Yorkers, with a Broadway Season with multiple Asian heritaged men and women, as LEADS in Musicals AND PLAYS on Broadway.

TFP DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HERSELF!

It is really, some days, a joy to write this blog.

TFP out.

Tags ann-sanders, Broadway, chay-yew, Daniel Dae Kim, David Henry Hwang, joanna-carpenter, kelvin-moon-loh, light-in-the-piazza, musical, news, NYGASP, Ramin Karimloo, ruthie-ann-miles, the-connector, Theater, Theatre

Categories Diversity

Asians are killing it – and it is not a trend

January 9, 2024 //

The Golden Globes were on Sunday night, and as many predicted, Ali Wong and Steven Yuen walked off with Best Performance by an Actress/Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Statuettes for their roles in BEEF.

BEEF also awarded it’s creator, Lee Sun-jin the Best Miniseries, Anthology, or Motion Picture Made for Television. Overall, BEEF was nominated for 13 Awards, and walked away with three.

Charles Melton, the Actor of Mixed Asian background, won for Outstanding Supporting Performance at The Gotham Awards for his role in the feature film, May/December.

Here is his speech at the UNFORGETTABLE Awards –

Great speech.

All of the speeches are great.

Now let’s talk about a moment, from The Golden Globes that was…not quite as great.

The glee with which a lot of people gravitate towards Charles Melton, an exceptionally handsome Mixed Korean man, and the disdain they seem be be showering on Jo Koy, an average looking Mixed Filipino comedian who mostly plays to giant audiences of People of Color, has it’s roots in the uncomfortable truths – which is, unless you are disarmingly attractive as a mixed race person – think Olivia Munn, H.E.R., Nicole Scherzinger, Merle Dandridge, Tyson Beckford, Olivia Rodrigo, and so on – you are going to be in a rough place, both with white people who do not know where to put you AND those with 100 per cent Asian forbears.

In fact, TFP has noticed on the clock app, a glee that is coming from the non-Mixed Asians that seems almost diabolical in their need not just to acknowledge that Mr. Koy had a rough night, but mocking his comedic voice in general. As someone who has hung out with a lot of comedians, this rubs TFP the wrong way.

Everyone can have a rough set. Everyone can misfire. To go after the man’s entire career is not what should happen.

Not all jokes are going to land with all crowds – clearly Mr. Koy is not a comedian who often tells ‘jokes’ – set up, set up, punchline. He is a storytelling comic. He tells stories that his audience – usually mainly People of Color, relate to on some level. His audience is inclusive. He often allies himself with other groups in his crowds, for example pointing out the similarity between Filipinos and Mexicans. Telling Divorced Dads to not fight their ex over child support. Pointing out how his sisters left home early, while he, the only boy, had to be asked to leave by his Mother when he was 28, and then it was just to the garage. He does a lot of bits with his Mom – much as Margaret Cho does when she does standup.

No, his act is not all accents and imitations. That is a punitive take. His standup does rely though, on audience participation.

For example – had he told the joke about Martin Scorsese‘s film, Killers of the Flower Moon to his audience – (What I learned from Killers of the Flower Moon is that white people stole everything) the laughter would have gone on for several minutes. As the person who lifted the story from the book, then centered a white narrative that was, in fact, the killer’s…perhaps Mr. Scorsese (who has lifted from Asian films almost frame for frame aka The Departed) at the Golden Globes were not going to be on board with that.

Hark though – Meryl Streep seemed be fine with him. Robert DeNiro as well.

Taylor Swift, not so much. Which is ok.

This is not about talent – this is about how much white audiences ‘allow POC to flourish’ when they are the focus of the repartee. Jim Gaffigan, very funny standup, was there was laughing, because…he gets it. Why was he there? No idea. TFP is sure someone will tell her. Must have had a comedy special. Ricky Gervais ripped the guests apart and they did not like him either, and yet, he was invited back again and again. White on white crime is allowed. Punching above your weight class?

Could Mr. Koy have done better? Absolutely he could have.

She hopes never to hear the word ‘boobies’ in an award ceremony again – ever. Nor does she enjoy the thought that a man could be seated in one part of the auditorium, whilst his nether regions are long enough to extend to the stage. Sounds incredibly uncomfortable, just think of his tailor.

However, the combination of chilly white gazes and the Asians online condemning Jo Koy is not just a “how very DARE he” kind of thing.

TFP sees it as purist behavior.

TFP has hosted quite a lot, nothing as large as the Golden Globes – but Whoopi Goldberg has. What she had to say, TFP agreed with- Mr. Koy just did not know the room. Hired ten days prior, he did not even get enough time to envision himself knowing the room and writers?

Of course he used them. All Hosts use them.

Mixed race Asian people are applauded when they do well – especially good looking ones – because when we accept awards it is wonderful to acknowledge our Asian parent, throw in a phrase the audience might know, show how Asian we are. Mixed race Asian people who hit the wrong note are instantly ostracized and are alarmingly ‘ not Asian enough’ for Asian Americans. Instantly discounted because of their backgrounds. Perhaps we did not know the right way to cut the fruit, or the hand positions to share alcohol, or did not show deference – and when we give folks, ‘the rep sweats’, the bum’s rush is immediate. Sadly after viewing white reactions – Asians got the ‘rep sweats’. And awaaay he goes….

TFP does not know Mr. Koy, but writing this blog – even when you are not actively writing it – makes you aware of things – like that he invested in the Broadway show HERE LIES LOVE, like he got the film EASTER SUNDAY made, which united well known known Fil-Am actors and lesser known together. He had a sitcom pilot that did not go, and as he mentioned – he has had a few Netflix specials. He is going off on a multi-city tour. Jo Koy is a community guy – he is ‘our’ community guy. He may not host an awards show again, but he may, and let’s just wish him better luck next time and a lot more prep time.

He does belong in Hollywood – it was only those who gatekeep Hollywood that decided he did not belong in the room at the Golden Globes. Meryl said he could stay, Taylor said they were ‘never, ever getting back together‘ with one sip of a drink.

It is all good. It was a good Golden Globes – there was an AAPI Host and there were AA award winners. Many, many firsts. When we can stop counting the firsts, we will have won.

Gatekeeping is not what ‘allies’ is supposed to mean – plenty of comics have failed at hosting before, perhaps hosts should be done away with all together – but till then, let’s all do a better job of allowing the people that have shot their shot, a bit of a grace. Some things did not land – it happens. TFP watched the video a few times now, it was not always the joke, it was that white Hollywood does not find itself funny, and only someone from a ‘higher white’ status, aka British, aka Gervais, is allowed to point it out.

And next time, Hollywood Foreign Press – hire Alec Mapa.

He would have had a great bit with Vanessa Williams, America Ferrara, and Matt Damon ready to go. He could wear a matching Willy Wonka outfit and tap his way into the audience, as he has worked with most of them.

TFP out.

Tags Alec Mapa, ali-wong, Awards, charles-melton, film, golden-globes, goldenglobes, jokoy, margaret-cho, movies, news, steve-yuen

Categories Diversity

TFP is back #Warrior #HudsonYangFoodie #MeanGirlsand more to get excited about in 2024

January 4, 2024 //

Where have you been, oh Fairy Princess?

The short answer is that on Dec. 26,2023, TFP became an orphan.

Those of you who have become grown orphans know what that is about, and time to process becomes essential. Especially if you lose parental guidance during the holidays. TFP chose travel and honoring and creating memories above anything else. Liam’s Squidward face says it all.

She did, of course, do her panels at BroadwayCon, which she again will be doing for the eighth year this year – lucky 8! Asians, where you at?

There was also a little thing called the Great Screen Actors Guild strike of 2023 – as SAG/AFTRA members, we were not allowed to promote anything that members of the AMPTP could benefit from. TFP is a SAG/AFTRA member and an AEA member, so unless she was writing about Broadway, she honestly was not ‘allowed’ to write – she was allowed to march – and march she did!

TFP usually blogs to support Asian and Pacific Islander talent, not just on Broadway, but on television and in films. Also – not JUST Asian and Pacific Islander talent, but under-repped people across the board. TFP is known for ‘calling out’ producers, networks, casting – alas if there is no producing, nothing new is going on networks, and therefore…who needs casting?

You see the issue.

A blog, this blog, is not therapy.

A blog, for TFP is the space to remind people that speaking about diversity and agreeing we all need it, is not actually creating more diversity – although it can help to maintain allies and create understanding.

What ‘we’ need – those behind the camera, in front, supporting the whole thing – is small actions that a individual can take that will not cost a ton, is something most people do anyway, which help us understand where we fall in the ‘big picture’.

“We’ all come out when there is an issue, but subtly upsetting the status quo? Maybe, sometimes- if we are able or have had enough coffee that day or…with that said….onward, it’s the little things…

WARRIOR, formerly of HBO (before that Cinemax), has been sold to NETFLIX, which opens it up to a much wider audience. The possibility that people will watch all three seasons about Bruce Lee‘s vision of the Chinese arriving in America in the early days, 1800’s – (Pay attention fans of The Gilded Age, these are the folks building George Russell’s rail roads) and demand a FOURTH season is HIGH. If you #Thread it, fans of the show – new fans – it will come. That is TFP’s belief.

Shout out to Shannon Lee for the vision to take this from the page to the small screen, what a tremendous contribution she has made not just to her father’s legacy, but to the greater community of Asians in America – East, Southeast, South – and to fans, no matter what background – of martial arts.

Need to get Diana Lee Inosanto on Season Four, and the circle will be complete.

Diana is currently killing it on Disney+ in Ahsoka along with Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Temuera Morrison. However she is a fierce martial arts combatant and she should be on WARRIOR if there comes a Season 4.

In TFP‘s estimation it has a very, very high percentage to command S4. Most people have a NETFLIX account but do not have an HBO MAX account – which is enormous for the Cast and Crew. Also, there are three established seasons, but nothing is wrapped up. Based on initial response, the team could be heading back to South Africa where it is filmed, in no time at all.

WARRIOR launches on NETFLIX in FEBRUARY 2024. Binge watch it and be wow’ed – then get 5 of your friends to watch it as well.

Phenomenal performances by all the Actors, but of course, because it is his birthday today- special one to Broadway’s Telly Leung, who joins the existing company of Andrew Koji, Olivia Cheng, Perry Young, Jason Tobin, Dianne Doan, Hoon Lee, Joe Taslim, Chen Tang, Dustin Ngyuen, Marc Dacasos, and various other non Asian folks – who, hey – they were here then too.

Telly is playing the 1800’s version of himself, and frankly – TFP was ‘here for it’ when it was on HBO, and she will be ‘here for it” even more on NETFLIX. In her estimation, when the next book is written about Pop Culture in the 2020’s (lookin at you Jeff & the Phil (s)) if there is not an entire section on WARRIOR and it’s potential for changing the conversation about Asians of America and how it made them sexy badasses – first time since Bruce Lee – then TFP will eat her…dumplings.

She will eat all the dumplings and be contrite.

Will not happen though – it is a game changer and being on NETFLIX only means the game will be seen across the globe, instead of a somewhat small group of elite.

Another show on NETFLIX we are super excited about is THE BROTHERS SUN– again, if you already have the service, all you have to do is watch it. It premiered today on January 4th, and TFP must confess, she binged watched it and she was absolutely thrilled to do so.

It is repping Action Asians on screen and behind the camera – as it was written by Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk, and directed by several people but mostly it seems, Choreographer/Director Kevin Tancharoen, who directs 5 out of the 8 episodes. The remaining 3 are directed expertly by Viet Ngyuen.

To paraphrase Phil Yu and Jeff Yang – you will NOT get the ‘rep sweats’ watching this series, it is great.

Cast includes Oscar Winner Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, Sam Li, Highdee Kuan, Alice Hewkin, Jenny Yang, Rodney To, Ron Yuan, and a series of cameos by some great LA Asian talent.

The story follows a college age student who finds himself embroiled in a gang war that began in another country and found him all the way in America. There are some fabulous inside LA’s AAPI community jokes that had TFP cracking up, Improv comedy is a running gag, and as TFP also studied at The Groundlings, it made her really appreciate how smart, how specific, and yet how universal this series is.

You could also – if you don’t have a mental health day coming your way – choose to let it run in the background because, hey – numbers are numbers and we need to get THE BROTHERS SUN‘s numbers way up, because a Season 2 is definitely needed.

HUDSON YANG is coming to the Asian Food Network with his reality cooking show, ORDER UP.

Hudson is very geared towards learning all the ins and outs of the restaurant business, while he was still starring in FRESH OFF THE BOAT for ABC, he became an early investor in the restaurant KHONG TEN in West LA, which has since closed. Being a busy college student – he attends Harvard as a sophmore and recently performed in the musical, HEATHERS, when he is not off learning how to cook in Asia.

Sounds awesome. Hudson can sing, so TFP is really thrilled he did HEATHERS at Harvard.

Speaking of Musicals, the composer, lyricist, and book writer of said musical, HEATHERS is Lawrence O’Keefe who alongside his wife, Lyricist, Writer, & Composer Nell Benjamin, co-wrote the music and lyrics for LEGALLY BLONDE, for which they were nominated for a TONY Awards. Nell then collaborated on the musical MEAN GIRLS with Tina Fey, which arrives in movie theaters on January 12, 2024.

Next up for Ms. Benjamin is the stage musical, COME FALL IN LOVE, the DDLJ Musical which featured a heavily South Asian company, and is Broadway bound.

Now, MEAN GIRLS has always had diversity within the show while it ran on Broadway, but in the film has taken it to the next level – Thanks Telsey!

The film musical’s cast has Broadway & Only Murders In the Building‘s Ashley Park as Madame Park, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, Avantika as Karen Shetty, Mahi Alam as Kevin Ganatra, John El-Jor as Jason Weems, Grant Harrison Mateo as Tiny Boy, Kaylee Kaleinani as Sophie Kawachi, and Amann Iqbal as Rude Girl – that is a LOT of folks who in a current day film have Asian heritage of all kinds. Chris Olsen of Tik Tok fame is even in there – he is of Filipino descent, hangs out with Meghan Trainor, usually brings coffee to celebs? In addition to the film, you can find him on the clock app @chris.

@chris
JUST WAIT FOR ITTTT…. #meangirls
♬ original sound – Chris Olsen

Since it has been a while, let TFP remind you – the issue is money – the issue is, with this widely diverse a cast, are in person movie theaters going to see their box office boom? If it does, then you get to take your kids or your significant other to see images on the large screen where you are represented.

Being represented does not mean ‘this is a carbon copy of my every facial feature and trait’ what it means is, there is someone who looks similar to you in that film universe. When people take that chance and go buy tickets and spend hours staring at diverse skin tones, psychologically they bond with the cast.

That is why there are fans. They attach to one character, or characters – and then when they leave the theater, they perhaps smile at someone the next day who reminds them of their favorite characters. They leave the door open for possibility – so that old Asian people in America can walk down the street and not get attacked for being old Asian Americans walking down the street in America. Heck, while attacks on the elderly were egregious, attacks on Asian American women – especially in New York were violent and sadly, life ending. TFP had to ride the NY subway at the time, she stood with her back to a station pole, as did every other Asian appearing person she caught a glimpse of.

Top L-R Thom Sesma, Ali Ewoldt, Liam Kong looking les miz, Ruthie Ann Miles, Joanna Carpenter, Raymond J. Lee, Director Stafford Arima, Bottom: Erin Quill, Zach Piser – BroadwayCon 2023

Wanting to remind you that most shows, most Broadway shows, even now, do not have a plethora of AAPI talent in them, many times we are found in the dance ensemble and only in the dance ensemble – but SWEENEY TODD, with or without Josh Groban, has a larger than usual amount of Asians in there – led by TONY Winner, Ruthie Ann Miles. Raymond J. Lee who frequently goes on for the Beadle Bamford and Pirelli, Joanna Carpenter, who ‘covers’ Ms. Miles, are both pictured above. Not pictured are Alicia Kaori and Michael Kuhn, which bring the number of performers to 5, and also (very exciting) ASM Plato Seto.

Which makes the current cast of Sweeney Todd the Broadway show with the most AAPIs for a show not set in Asia.

Now, for a moment, let us just ponder that these cast members many times have had to defend their right to even be in the show and battle the microagressions that come with that – however TFP will remind you that Sweeney Todd is set in London in the year 1785.

The first documented Chinese person in Western European books was a Christian monk name Rabban Bar Sauma in the late 13th century. The next to be documented, this time by a painting, was Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu Tsung, which was painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller which was commissioned by King James II, and presented in 1687. It hung in the King’s bedroom till he died.

So yes, there were Asian people in London – perhaps not in huge numbers, but they were there because what does TFP always say? Port cities had a transient population and world travelers – and where there are men and women, there are babies at some point. In fact, for a show not set in Asia, the cast has a huge number of Asians, and thank you to The Telsey Office.

Therefore please stop remarking to the very excellent cast members that they ‘do a good English accent’ or that you are ‘surprised’ to see them – they are doing their job, and excellently – move on.

Where a bar of excellence has been set, others will follow – which is why we were all delighted to hear that there is good news on the horizon for a transfer.

In fact, Ms.Miles who announced on TFP’s panel this past summer, that the show she headlined at City Center – LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is currently looking for a Broadway theater.

TFP could not say enough good things about that production, directed by Chay Yew, she was ecstatic to see that having diversity behind the table, which led to ‘inside jokes’ that only minority folks could understand. Like the choice he made to have all the Italian characters be played by Latinx actors. He ‘took back’ what had been done in the past by Hollywood and Broadway, where they frequently let Italians play any person of color, without regard to even trying to find actual Latinx or Native American people to inhabit those roles, flipped his thing down and reversed it.

Playwright Larissa FastHorse in addition to her wildly popular Thanksgiving Play, has re-written the book for Peter Pan, the beloved children’s book about a boy who will not grow up and fairies that die without applause.

This new version began at the Ordway and will tour the nation. Lonny Price is directing – and, if it comes near to you, and you have the means, perhaps go and see a story that had a portrayal that needed updating. Like, really needed it.

Finally, TFP want you to know that Hudson Yang is not the only one in show business in the Family . His father, Jeff Yang, journalist, book writer, and podcaster co-wrote his first film, A GREAT DIVIDE with Jean Shim and Martina Nagel.

Directed by Jean Shim. Starring Ken Jeong, Jae Suh Park, Emerson Min, Miya Cech and MeeWha Alana Lee, aka The Lee Family, who leave the Bay Area for a fresh start in Wyoming.

(What could possibly go wrong?)

Born out of the awareness of the violence against AAPI People during the pandemic in America, we became aware of how, even now, the question of tolerance is really often one of white forbearance. Which can be rescinded at any time, depending on mood.

This film is currently on the film festival circuit – so if it hits yours in your area – please buy a ticket.

There we are Folks, very simple, not costly ways to help contribute to the change of perception of Americans in this country. You can turn on your internet streaming device, you can go to the movies, or the theater, or a film festival – and your numbers make a difference. The conversations you can begin from seeing those works are all part of TFP‘s master plan to make sure Americans of Asian descent are seen as Americans, and not as something to be othered.

Bring us MORE in 2024!

TFP out. (But she will be back)

Tags ahsohka, andrew-koji, Broadway, broadwaycon, chen-tang, danielyorkloh, diana-lee-inosanto, dustin-ngyuen, film, gavinlee, hoon-lee, hudsonyang, jeffyang, joanna-carpenter, lawrence-okeefe, leasalonga, mean-girls, nell-benjamin, news, perry-yung, Raymond J. Lee, review, ruthieannmiles, shannon-lee, stafford-arima, Telly Leung, Theater, thomsesma, warrior, westend, zach-piser

Categories Diversity

2025/26 will NOT be 2024/25 but it will BE…moving on…

No one can ‘make’ you sing…

BroadwayCon Panels – you asked, we are serving …

DHH and the Met, Florida Man strikes again, Congrats to Airbender and keep watching Warrior!

Let’s get Netflix to spring for Warrior Season 4 – and other wins prove this coming Bway year is the most Asian ever (in a year with no shows set in Asia)

Warrior Sisters of Wu opens at Pan Asian Rep, 1st Asian Orpheus in Hadestown, 1st AsAm Velma Kelly in Chicago

DDK on the Old Broadway – DHH and The Roundabout brings YELLOW FACE (the play) to the Great White Way

Asians are killing it – and it is not a trend

TFP is back #Warrior #HudsonYangFoodie #MeanGirlsand more to get excited about in 2024

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