{"title":"Democracy, \"Democracy (Reprise),\" and the Asian American Ambivalence of Soft Power","authors":"Donatella Galella","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929510","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>In <i>Soft Power</i> (2019), David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori deconstruct and demonstrate the affective power of American musicals by reversing <i>The King and I</i> (1951). <i>Soft Power</i> satirizes democracy, white supremacy, and gun violence with whiteface, meta-propaganda, and a sweeping Broadway-style score. In the torch song “Democracy” and its reprise, the artists articulate Asian American ambivalence about US democracy: hope in its promise to lift everyone, despair in its rootedness in racism, and cognizance of musical theatre as a delivery system for ideology. This article uses repetition, interviews, reviews, and dramaturgy to consider <i>Soft Power</i>, soft power, and democracy.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"THEATRE JOURNAL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929510","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"THEATER","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:
In Soft Power (2019), David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori deconstruct and demonstrate the affective power of American musicals by reversing The King and I (1951). Soft Power satirizes democracy, white supremacy, and gun violence with whiteface, meta-propaganda, and a sweeping Broadway-style score. In the torch song “Democracy” and its reprise, the artists articulate Asian American ambivalence about US democracy: hope in its promise to lift everyone, despair in its rootedness in racism, and cognizance of musical theatre as a delivery system for ideology. This article uses repetition, interviews, reviews, and dramaturgy to consider Soft Power, soft power, and democracy.
摘要:在《软实力》(2019)中,大卫-亨利-黄(David Henry Hwang)和珍妮-特索里(Jeanine Tesori)通过反转《国王与我》(1951),解构并展示了美国音乐剧的情感力量。软实力》以白脸、元宣传和百老汇风格的配乐讽刺了民主、白人至上和枪支暴力。在火炬歌曲《民主》及其重唱中,艺术家们表达了亚裔美国人对美国民主的矛盾心理:对其提升每个人的承诺充满希望,对其植根于种族主义感到绝望,并认识到音乐剧是意识形态的传递系统。本文通过重复、访谈、评论和剧作来思考软实力、软实力和民主。
期刊介绍:
For over five decades, Theatre Journal"s broad array of scholarly articles and reviews has earned it an international reputation as one of the most authoritative and useful publications of theatre studies available today. Drawing contributions from noted practitioners and scholars, Theatre Journal features social and historical studies, production reviews, and theoretical inquiries that analyze dramatic texts and production.