Jeanine Tesori & David Henry Hwang, “Soft Power,” 2018

KPFA - Bay Area Theater

This podcast was originally posted on June 8, 2018.

Playwright David Henry Hwang and composer Jeanine Tesori discuss their latest project, an original musical titled “Soft Power,” which played at the Curran Theatre June 20-July 8, 2018, with host Richard Wolinsky.

After the run at the Curran, the show was retooled and opened at New York’s Public Theatre on September 19, 2019 and closed following a limited run on November 17, 2019. The show was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was nominated (but didn’t win) for eleven Drama Desk Awards, and did win four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best Off-Broadway Musical in 2020.

“Soft Power” starts with a play and turns into a musical, about a reverse “King and I” created in China and produced fifty years in the future, concerning the relationship between a Chinese envoy and Hillary Clinton, which brings up questions regarding cultural appropriation and what is called “soft power,” the power of culture to influence society. Elements of the play, as noted in the interview, are taken from events that happened in David Henry Hwang’s life.

David Henry Hwang is a Tony winning playwright, the author of, among other works, “M. Butterfly”, “Chinglish” and “Yellow Face,” along with a recently reworked “Flower Drum Song.” He is also on the writing staff of the Showtime TV show “The Affair.”

Jeanine Tesori is a Tony winning composer. Among her works are “Caroline, or Change,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Violet” (to be seen in a Bay Area Musicals production next season) and “Fun Home.

Photo: Richard Wolinsky. Recorded in the offices of the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.

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