In a 1997 East West Players production, John Cho (left) and Reggie Lee perform in FOB, David Henry Hwang’s groundbreaking play.
From New York to Minneapolis to Los Angeles, independent stages fill in the gaps of the American experience.
Avid theatergoer Terry Hong clearly remembers traveling to New York City in 1988 to see playwright David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, the first Asian American play to be performed on Broadway.
“It was a life-changing moment for me,” says Hong, who has written extensively about Asian American theater. “Stereotypes were being confronted, dissected, challenged, in the most clever, brilliant ways.”
Based on a true story, the play is about a French diplomat who falls in love with a Beijing Opera star only to have it end in tragedy. Audience members familiar with Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly would have found similarities at first—until Hwang’s play shatters expectations of how this story is traditionally supposed to play out. Gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and national identity are all questioned and upended.
Hwang won the Tony Award for Best Play that year. As the awards mark its 75th anniversary on June 12, he remains the first and only Asian American playwright to do so.