Review: YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE at East West Players

Among the accomplishments of which the actor Vincent Chang is most proud – and since the man has an ego, there are quite a few – is the distinction of never having turned down a role. “Good or bad, the responsibility of an actor is to do that role well,” he tells an audience accepting an Asian American career achievement award. “Whatever is asked of you, do it. Yes. But do it with dignity.”

Ah, yes, there’s the rub that positively chafes, since Vincent has built a career out of enacting quite a few less than dignified roles. He’s been nominated for an Oscar and he has played a thick-accented vaudevillian in a ghastly musical on the Chop Suey circuit. After he recites these lines about being an actor, we next see him emceeing at a Tupperware convention in Texas.

East West Players’ revival of Philip Kan Gotanda’s 1988 play YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE arrives at a moment where Asian actors enjoy considerably more opportunities both on screen and on stage than would have been available to the Vincent Changs of Hollywood yesteryear. In some respects, Gotanda’s play feels like a museum piece. On another level, the generational dynamic between an older thespian and the young buck who idolizes the man while despising what he represents, is as relevant as ever. A tale of community and the frailty of Tinseltown dreams, YANKEE DAWG is given a full-throated production by actors Daniel J. Kim and Kelvin Han Yee under the direction of Jennifer Chang.

Fittingly, YANKEE DAWG has roots in L.A. In the production’s program notes, EWP Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal notes that Gotanda developed material for the play while working with actors on other plays produced at East West Players. The company produced YANKEE DAWG in 2001. Going further back to the play’s origins, YANKEE DAWG’S 1988 Berkeley Rep world premiere transferred to the Los Angeles Theatre Center with cast members Sab Shimono and – in a very cool bridge to Change’s production - Kelvin Han Yee, who originated the younger role of Bradley Yamashita.  

As YANKEE DAWg opens, we first encounter Vincent through one of his personas, Sgt Moto, a cartoonish Japanese soldier menacing an American GI. Moto gets his dander up over having to constantly clarify that when he says “34,” he is not saying “dirty floor.” “What the hell is wrong with you?" he demands. "Why can’t you hear what I’m saying? Why cant you see me as I am?”

Why indeed. Flash to the patio of some swankified Hollywood party where a relaxed Vincent, now every bit the dapper silver fox at home in the industry, is enjoying a glass of wine. There he is approached by Bradley Yamashita, an actor 35 years Vincent’s junior. While unabashedly a fan, Bradley also views himself – not Vincent - as the future of what Asian actors will be able to accomplish. The generational divide manifests during this first encounter. The term is “Asian” not “Oriental.” We make “films,” not “movies.” And on it goes. Bradley may be working as a bit player in art house  - or is it “independent?” – films, but Vincent has actually been invited to this party.

This first meeting careens between mutual admiration society acknowledgments to wariness to borderline antagonism.  Bradley has heard rumors about Vincent and vice-versa. Bradley eventually tells Vincent that, yes, he’s seen him in the latest film. “You had so much hair on your face you looked like an (expletive) chimpanzee!” It’s by no means the harshest charge Bradley will lay at the feet of the man who could become his mentor or his professional ruin.

Part of the drama – and certainly the fun – of the production is tracking the relationship between these two showmen and trying to guess where it will land. As members of what was (at the time) a limited acting pool, Vincent and Bradley continue to end up in each other’s orbits, auditioning for the same films, taking the same acting classes - some of which Vincent even teaches. Are these men fated to become compatriots fighting the good fight or embittered, backstabbing rivals? Underneath Bradley’s matinee idol looks and bonhomie, Kim makes it clear that something deeper and angrier is simmering. He makes it clear that, for Bardley, this is more than just about his own future. 

And for Vincent, an actor looking to continue his professional career and help carve a path for the next wave, how does he handle a Bradley Yamashita? Given the slights and the indignities he experiences and even embraces, Vincent is either very naïve or very shrewd. Yee charms as effortlessly as he lies and sandbags. We’re never quite sure how much this man is in control or how close he is to reaching his own final act.

Fully embracing both its 80s backdrop and homage to old Hollywood, Chang'es production is aided by Yuri Okahana-Benson’s scenery and the sleek projections of Jason H. Thompson that help take us back to a different era. A highlight is the performance of a workshop theatrical production of a “sci-fi, political dram” featuring  – wait for it! -  Godzilla for which Bradley recruits Vincent. (Because, as we know, the man never turns down a role.) The staging of this scene, with its schmaltz as high art campiness, positively slays. Again, is Gotanda – or perhaps in this case, Bradley – planting Vincent amidst this nonsense as a measure of humiliation or to give the man a paycheck. A couple scenes later, Vincent is coaching Bradley through the “art thou a dagger of the mind” speech of Shakespeare’s MACBETH.

In addition to tackling poignant issues, Gotanda has also written a very funny play. To East West Players, Chang, Yee and Kim, I offer a slight title modification – YANKEE DAWG...YOU WIN!

YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE plays through July 27 at 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Hollywood Bowl)

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