King of the Yees Off-Broadway Reviews

It is remarkable how the playwright is able to pack so many aspects of her cultural heritage so easily within a surprisingly traditional father-and-daughter story. The usually quick, terse dialogue delivers information and observations in a sprightly...

It is remarkable how the playwright is able to pack so many aspects of her cultural heritage so easily within a surprisingly traditional father-and-daughter story. The usually quick, terse dialogue delivers information and observations in a sprightly conversational manner, the tone is upbeat, and Yee’s affectionate portrait of her dad is disarming.

Act 2 moves like a freight train, but director Joshua Kahan Brody doesn’t let things get out of control. And he slows the pace beautifully at the end for Lauren’s grace note of a speech, when she tells us, among other things, that “The story I ...

Act 2 moves like a freight train, but director Joshua Kahan Brody doesn’t let things get out of control. And he slows the pace beautifully at the end for Lauren’s grace note of a speech, when she tells us, among other things, that “The story I wrote, this play, was not about the end, but the beginning.”

All of this could easily get dizzying or ponderous, but thanks to the crispness in Yee’s writing, the clarity in Brody’s direction of the ensemble, and the wry double/triple consciousness in all of the performances that it never veers in either d...

All of this could easily get dizzying or ponderous, but thanks to the crispness in Yee’s writing, the clarity in Brody’s direction of the ensemble, and the wry double/triple consciousness in all of the performances that it never veers in either direction for longer than a line or two. And yes, King of the Yees does dip toward the sentimental at the end. But it’s so clever, so metatheatrical, and so affectionate throughout that I hardly minded.