‘Soft Power’
Through Sept. 15
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave.
Arlington, Va.
Starting at $40
Sigtheatre.org

There’s a wonderful scene in “Soft Power” where Hillary Clinton goes underground. She’s just lost the election and she’s eating a lot of bad takeout and seeing no one. But she’s willing to make an exception for one man. He’s Xue Xing, a Chinese theatrical producer from Shanghai whom she briefly but memorably met on the campaign trail.

Once he convinces her to venture outdoors, Hillary doffs the food-stained robe and dowdy sleeping cap to magically reveal a chic black shirt dress with full skirt and a bouncy bob of blonde tresses. Next, the duo elegantly dances across the stage (and presumably the country) for a better view of the romantic Golden Gate Bridge. It’s quite the moment.

Billed as a musical fantasia, “Soft Power,” a terrific collaboration between playwright David Henry Hwang (“Yellow Face,” “M. Butterfly”) and composer Jeanine Tesori (“Fun Home,” “Kimberly Akimbo”), is currently playing at Signature Theatre in a revised, taut version of its earlier off-Broadway incarnation. At about 90 minutes, it’s substantially shorter, and this time an Asian actor, the marvelous Grace Yoo, is playing Hillary.

The story unfolds at a rapid, highly entertaining pace. On the cusp of the 2016 election, Xue Xing (an all-around pitch perfect Daniel May) is eager to peddle some soft power (i.e. “to co-opt rather than coerce”). His mission in America is to put a pro-Chinese musical on the Great White Way. Sadly, DHH the playwright he’s commissioned to do the job can’t find a viable way into the assignment.

Like David Henry Hwang, DHH (Steven Eng) is the son of immigrants. He possesses limited knowledge of China and doesn’t speak Chinese. Also, like Hwang, who was stabbed by a random stranger near his home in Brooklyn in 2015, DHH is violently attacked on the streets of New York. It’s while recovering in hospital that DHH falls into a prolonged fever dream in which he reconciles feelings about China and America set against a backdrop of ardor, and classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals. Like so many dreams, the characters are blends of real people and places.

Staged by Ethan Heard, Signature’s associate artistic director who also happens to be Chinese-American, queer, and proficient in Mandarin, “Soft Power” boasts a top-notch, largely Asian cast that ably plays varied races from wide-ranging walks of life. Broadway costume designer Helen Q. Huang creates a rather soigné look drawn from the real-life candidate’s practical workaday uniform. Set designer Chika Shimizu cleverly creates distinct settings using straightforward signage, subtle graffiti, and some smoky glass.

Billy Bustamante’s choreography conveys energy and emotion ranging from a tiki torch bearing mob to a Fred and Ginger expression of budding romance. And music director Angie Benson skillfully conducts the 10-person orchestra beautifully rendering Tesori’s both eclectic and memorable score.

The show’s razzle-dazzle number “I’m With Her,” features Hillary in full campaign mode at a busy McDonald’s restaurant. Initially, high above the crowd, dressed in an ivory-colored coat, she evokes Evita. As she descends into the adoring fray, it’s more a blend of oily Harold Hill, brassy Reno Sweeney and a bit of Baby June really selling it on the Orpheum circuit. In short, all the glad-handing madness of an American election.

The feel-good fun is abruptly interrupted when a preppy kid in a red baseball cap, Holden Caufield (an aptly angsty Joey Urgino standing in for Nicholas Yenson), crashes the lovefest proclaiming how he can’t stand “phonies” so he’s voting for the other guy.

With varying degrees of success, the playwright employs humor to explore contrasting cultures, democracy, exceptionalism, and gun control. At one point, a delightfully fey Chief Justice (Andrew Crispi) musically lays out just how voting works including the Electoral College, which doesn’t ensure a victory for the candidate garnering the most votes. Xue Xing isn’t impressed.

Hwang’s isn’t the only work about Asians suffering at the hands of emboldened racists. Chisa Hutchinson’s “Redeemed,” a piece inspired by an uptick in anti-Asian hate crime in the early days of the pandemic (think “kung flu”), made its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in West Virginia in the summer of 2023.

The Black bisexual playwright’s compelling two hander is set in the visiting room of a high security prison where an Asian American woman meets with the white man who murdered her gay brother when he heard him speaking Chinese in line at an ATM. There’s no singular way to talk about domestic terrorism. Both pieces work but in different ways.