Review: TIGER STYLE! at Profile Theatre

Harvard degrees. Carnegie Hall. A carefully mapped future. For the Chen siblings, none of it has translated into that elusive modern American obsession: happiness. Mike Lew's TIGER STYLE!, now playing at Profile Theatre under Peter Kim's direction, is a searing, hilarious exploration of what happens when you're caught between two worlds and unprepared for both.

Albert (Nich Ong) and Jennifer (Evangeline Billups) are in full crisis mode. Albert, a software engineer, watches his charismatic but underachieving colleague Russ The Bus get promoted while his own contributions go unrecognized. Jennifer, an MD-PhD oncologist, spirals when her boyfriend of three years dumps her for not being fun enough, derailing her carefully planned timeline for marriage and children.

What do you do when your life implodes? Blame your parents, of course. The siblings decide their second-generation Chinese American parents raised them for success in the old world, which is why they're failing in the new one. The strict focus on academic achievement and mandatory music lessons that are the hallmarks of “tiger parenting” didn’t prepare them for today’s American workplaces where charisma trumps productivity, or for interpersonal relationships that don’t adhere to tight schedules.

While the play examines the experience of third-generation Chinese Americans who have been tiger parented, it will resonate with anyone who has found that their life didn't follow the path they anticipated. This is a story of identity-seeking, family struggles, and dealing with life’s disappointments that's both specific and universal. It also skewers racial stereotypes – from the “unrelatable” colleague, to the “exotic” romantic prospect, to the nosy elders – exposing how these limiting perceptions don’t just offend, they constrain and distort lives.

The play premiered in 2016, and Lew has updated it for every subsequent production. This one is set in 2019, just pre-COVID, but it presages the world-changing events to come. It is extremely funny, like stomach-hurting funny, but also contains a deep examination of the multifaceted nature of identity and what it means to belong to a country, a race, a generation.

This show is fast-paced and demands high energy, and the cast delivers. Ong and Billups are fantastic as the siblings, while the excellent supporting cast of Heath Hyun Houghton, Murri Lazaroff-Babin, and especially the incredibly funny Julia Morizawa bring personality and physical comedy to their multiple characters.

Based on the laughter, gasps, and other reactions on opening night, the audience was clearly delighted, and rightfully so. TIGER STYLE! is both wildly entertaining and deeply thoughtful.