Actor makes Tony Awards history
Kim is the first Asian nominee in that category.
The play is called 'Yellow Face' and the show also scored nods for best play revival and best performance by a featured actor in a play for first-time nominee Francis Jue, an original 2007 cast member.
Kim, 56, known for TV series such as 'Lost' and 'Hawaii Five-0,' is the first Asian nominee in the category of best leading actor in a play in the Tonys' 78-year history.
'I can imagine a lot of things, but I did not imagine this scenario with David,' Kim said. 'That I would be in a play with him, that we would both be nominated for Tony Awards and we would be able to call each other friends.'
In the semi-autobiographical show, which ran last fall at the Roundabout Theatre Company, Kim played a satirical version of the play's writer, David Henry Hwang. Hwang wrote the play in response to the musical 'Miss Saigon'casting white actors as Asian characters.
Kim's performance was filmed in November for a PBS broadcast of 'Yellow Face' that is available to watch now. The Tonys, airing on CBS on June 8, also will put a spotlight on the play.
This groundbreaking nomination seems like the perfect reward for Kim, who has spent years advocating for greater Asian representation. At the pandemic's height, the Korean American actor was a constant media presence speaking out against anti-Asian hate. He also jump-started a campaign for veteran actor James Hong, then 91, to get a Hollywood star.
'It'd be a huge surprise if I won, but I will say that even getting the nomination is a win especially when you put it in the context of our community and what this means for Asian Americans,' said Kim, whose previous Broadway credits include 'The King and I.'
Kim is one of seven Asian acting nominees this year. Only three acting trophy winners have been Asian. One was Lea Salonga for 'Miss Saigon' and another was Ruthie Ann Miles for 'The King and I.' Coincidentally, the first was BD Wong for best featured actor in Hwang's Tony-winning play, 'M. Butterfly.' Hwang takes special pride in helping actors break glass ceilings.
'I get to feel like, 'Oh, maybe I'm actually able to make a difference' and change the culture in the way that my little-kid-self would have loved but would not have thought possible,' said Hwang, who now has his fourth career Tony nomination. He was last nominated 22 years ago.
For a long time, Hwang felt the only way to get a play with Asian characters made was to set it outside America because 'Broadway audiences are not interested in Asian Americans.'
Historically, productions with Asian ensembles have been musicals set in 'the exotic lands of Asia,' such as 'The King and I,' said Esther Kim Lee, a theater studies professor at Duke University and author of 'The Theatre of David Henry Hwang.' 'Flower Drum Song,' set in San Francisco, was an exception but the songs and book were by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
'It's 2025. We finally see an actual Asian American play with an Asian American lead,' Lee said. 'You can have 'The King and I' and have great actors and they may get Tony Awards, but it's really not about Asian Americans. That this has happened with 'Yellow Face' is just incredible.'
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