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!
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