From Tony-award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang comes the Broadway debut of his Obie Award-winning, semi-autobiographical comedy Yellow Face'! The play opened at the American Airlines Theatre last night (Oct 1) to overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Featuring Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Hellboy, Hawaii Five-0) in the role of DHH, the play is directed by Tony and Drama Desk-nominated Leigh Silverman.

Inspired by true events, Yellow Face sees the fictionalized version of Hwang standing vehemently against the yellowface casting of a white actor in an Asian role in Miss Saigon... before accidentally doing the exact same in his latest work! Lets take a look at what the critics thought...

The Reviews

The New York Times: 

"I don't remember feeling the weight of that insight, or for that matter, the levity of the jokes, when I saw the 2007 production. Part of the improvement in this revival is, no doubt, the result of cuts, fine-tuning and rewritten scenes. The elimination of the intermission helps too; the two halves of the story don't separate like a sauce. And there's something to be said for the way a Broadway house, when a solid play is sized up to suit it, responds by giving it space to breathe."

Theatermania:

"Yellow Face is perhaps less a great work of theater than a great conversation starter. Nevertheless, it's good to have it back on a New York stage. At the very least, Hwang's play reminds us how much has changed but also how much remains the same, for all the strides that have been made in Asian representation in the theater world and elsewhere since 2007."

TimeOut: 

"Hwang has given Yellow Face a minor face lift since the original New York production. It's good work: Minus its intermission and a few inessential scenes, the play seems tauter and smoother, but not unnaturally so; its wrinkles and laugh lines remain."

Variety: 

"And it's a statement of intent, too. Yellow Face', produced on Broadway for the first time after an initial Off-Broadway run in 2007, might be the prolific Hwang's magnum opus, but it's also wily, wry, and slippery. It resists classification practically to its final moments, even as it builds to a climax of startling power."

Deadline: 

"With its minimalist sets by David Korins; era-appropriate costumes by Myung Hee Cho; and dreamy lighting (Donald Holder) and sound (Darron L. West) hinting at the time-hopping requirements of a memory play, Silverman's smoothly directed production is likely the final say on this long-in-coming play and a decades-old theater world brouhaha. David Henry Hwang and Yellow Face get the well-deserved last laughs."

New York Theatre Guide: 

"Kim duly performs a blend of egotistical confidence, comic cowardice, and conscientiousness in the role, and he bounces off an easygoing Ryan Eggold as Marcus, the 100% white guy whom DHH unintentionally grants an Asian American-intended role. Folded within the hilarity are critiques on a system that can enable this snafu."

Vulture: 

"Seventeen years is an eon in theater time, enough to make some plays feel as dated as fondue and Fawlty Towers, but David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face has aged well. Currently receiving its belated Broadway premiere in a swift, tangy production by Leigh Silverman who also directed its first New York run in 2007 the play retains its bite in part because its essential subject, like that of many a good comedy, is human folly."