ABSTRACT
Iconic musicals such as The King and I, South Pacific, and Miss Saigon perpetuate the trope of the intrepid American spirit taming the exotic East, solidifying the authoritative Western gaze while presenting Asian cultural practices through a limited, often prejudicial, lens. In Soft Power, dance is the ultimate cultural expression. Soft Power premiered in Los Angeles and San Francisco in Summer 2018 before transferring to the New York’s Public Theatre in Fall 2019, anticipating a Broadway transfer before COVID-19’s halted live theater. While Soft Power’s production future remains to be seen, the show’s impact on musical theater is already profound. Through its imaginative reversal of Orientalism, Soft Power undermines the stronghold of the Western gaze and grants agency to its Asian performers and creatives, who, for the first time, flip the script that previously held them in compliance with the appropriative lineage of musical theater.
