Theater: Cort Theatre / 138 West 48th Street, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
Revival of the Tony-winning 1988 drama about a French diplomat who carries on an affair with a beautiful Chinese opera singer who he believes to be a woman, but who turns out to be a man.
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October 26, 2017: Maybe they should call it “M. Moth.” Though it bent (and blew) the minds of rapt audiences with its elusive opalescence nearly three decades ago, David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly” returns to Broadway on heavier, drabber wings. True, the revival that opened on Thursday night at the Cort Theater, directed by Julie Taymor, has basically the same anatomy as its predecessor.
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October 26, 2017: Oh lord, what have David Henry Hwang and Julie Taymor done to “M. Butterfly”? Hwang’s 1988 Tony-winning play is a critical-minded drama dissecting race relations, gender roles and international affairs — and also a gripping thriller full of sex, spying and disguises.
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October 26, 2017: When a New York Times brief about the 1986 trial of French diplomat Bernard Boursicot gave David Henry Hwang the spark to write his breakthrough play M. Butterfly, he made a conscious decision to refrain from further research, instead envisioning the drama as a deconstructivist version of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. That resulted in a 1988 Broadway premiere that trafficked bewitchingly in mystery and ambiguity, at a time before non-binary gender roles, sexual fluidity and intersectionality had entered the cultural discourse in any significant way. Cut to the radically altered landscape of 2017, and a major revival of this celebrated hit becomes a tricky proposition.
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October 26, 2017: It flaps its wings but never takes flight. Three decades after its Tony Award-winning run, “M. Butterfly” is back on Broadway. Between a wan star turn, a clumsy staging and nagging issues that remain even with a revised script, the revival at the Cort Theatre frustrates and falls flat.
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October 26, 2017: Today’s audiences will find the deception that is at the heart of “M. Butterfly” far less shocking than when it won the Tony for best play in 1988. Maybe not shocking at all. In reworking the piece for the revival that opened on Broadway Thursday night, playwright David Henry Hwang, along with director Julie Taymor, clearly recognized the need to come at the intriguing — and true — story from a different angle.
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