Thanks to all the AABANY members and friends who joined us on Friday night, January 20, to catch David Henry Hwang’s latest play, Chinglish, which played at the Longacre Theater on Broadway.
Members of the New York chapter of NAAAP (National Association of Asian American Professionals) and their friends also held a theater outing to see Chinglish that same night, and we got together with them before the show at Hurley’s, a bar next door to the Longacre Theater, for a pre-show networking reception.
The show featured a talented cast of mostly Asian American actors, telling the story of a hapless American businessman trying to close a business deal in China. He encounters linguistic and cultural barriers along the way, resulting in numerous comedic incidents.
At the show’s conclusion, playwright David Henry Hwang joined the cast for a talkback, and both the AABANY and NAAAP groups got to stay and ask questions of Mr. Hwang and the cast.
Following the talkback, members of our two groups took photos with Mr. Hwang and got autographs from him and the cast on Chinglish posters that we all received. After that, we headed next door to Hurley’s for a post-show hangout. We got to meet some of the cast members there and also got to mix and mingle with each other.
Thanks to Lily Fan, an AABANY member and one of the show’s producers, for helping to bring about this wonderful evening. Sadly, Chinglish will have its final performance on January 28. It’s a funny, well-written and well-performed show, so if you have a chance to catch it before it leaves New York, go!
