The director seems to have breathed fire, too, into her first-rate acting ensemble, each of whom plays a variety of roles and all of whom deserve to be named: Brandon McCoy, Sue Jin Song, Mark Hairston, Jacob Yeh and Tonya Beckman.
Finally, we have Jacob Yeh and Tonya Beckman. Yeh’s eight or nine characters include a hilarious Senator Shelby as well as a delightfully enjoyable young videogame playing actor named Rodney Hatamiya.
And one by one the other six switch nimbly and hilariously into persona after persona: Tonya Beckman (Jane Krakowski, Frank Rich, et al.), Mark Hairston (Dick Cavett, Yellowgurl8…), Brandon McCoy (Ed Koch, a chorus girl in The King and I…), Sue Jin Song (Lily Tomlin, DHH’s mom…), Jacob Yeh (BD Wong, Joe Papp…), and Al Twanmo (Bernard Jacobs, DHH’s dad…). As these players’ own received and perceived boundaries of race and gender get tossed to the wings, the show’s smart send-up of essentialism soars at center stage.
