Satirical Comedy Yellow Face, Starring Daniel Dae Kim, Begins on Broadway

Yellow Face, playwright David Henry Hwang's unreliable comic memoir starring Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim (The King and I), begins performances at the Todd Haimes Theatre on September 13. The play will officially open October 1 and run through November 24.

In the play’s satirical riff on real events, “DHH” (i.e. David Henry Hwang, played by Kim) speaks out about “yellow face” casting on Broadway, only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play. Hwang's play—for which he won his third Obie Award and became a three-time Pulitzer finalist—skewers the complexities of race, representation and cancel culture along with the New York theater scene.

The play also stars Francis Jue (Pacific Overtures, Thoroughly Modern Millie) as the playwright's father and others; Jue played the same role inYellow Face off-Broadway at the Public Theater. They are joined by Tony nominee Kevin Del Aguila (Some Like it Hot) as Actor A, Ryan Eggold (NBC’s New Amsterdam) as Marcus, Marinda Anderson (You Will Get Sick) as Actor B, Greg Keller (Pre-Existing Condition) as Reporter and "Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel" and Shannon Tyo (The Comeuppance) as Leah and others.

The creative team for Yellow Face includes Arnulfo Maldonado (set design), Anita Yavich (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting design), Caroline Eng and Kate Marvin (sound design and original music) and Yee Eun Nam (projection design). Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Suffs) directs.

Yellow Face opened off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2007, directed by Silverman. The play has also been produced as a two-part YouTube video and an audio play for Audible, directed by Silverman. Released on May 2, 2024, the audio play starred Kim, Jason Biggs, Ashley Park, Wendell Pierce and Benedict Wong as well as featuring the voices of Dick Cavett, Margaret Cho, Ronan Farrow, Joel de la Fuente, Jane Krakowski, Mark Linn-Baker and Frank Rich.