Chinglish (play)

Chinglish
Original Broadway poster
Written by	David Henry Hwang
Directed by	Leigh Silverman
Date premiered	June 18, 2011
Place premiered	Goodman Theatre Chicago, Illinois
Original language	English, Mandarin
Genre	Comedy
Official site

Chinglish is a play by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang. It is a comedy about an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China, which opened on Broadway in 2011 with direction by Leigh Silverman.

Chinglish premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, where it ran from June 18, 2011, until July 31, 2011. This was Hwang's second collaboration with director Leigh Silverman, following Yellow Face at the Center Theater Group and The Public Theater.

Few plays in recent years have delighted me as much as Chinglish. With a career spanning more than three decades and a canon that incorporates an array of genres, David is one of the luminaries of contemporary American theater. I have admired his work since long before our collaboration on the Broadway musical Aida, and it is a thrill to welcome him to the Goodman for the first time.

-Robert Falls, Goodman Theatre Artistic Director

The play premiered on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on October 11, 2011 (previews), officially on October 27, 2011. Directed by Leigh Silverman, the cast featured Gary Wilmes, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Christine Lin, Stephen Pucci, Johnny Wu and Larry Lei Zhang. The play was performed in English and Mandarin (with projected English supertitles). The sets were by David Korins, costumes by Anita Yavich, lighting by Brian MacDevitt , sound by Darron L. West and projections by Jeff Sugg and Shawn Duan.

The 2015 East West Players production in Los Angeles is noted for its extended run. After David Henry Hwang saw the play at his namesake theatre, he decided to re-write the ending to reflect better the current relations between China and the United States. This new ending was premiered during the two-week extension.

An American businessman arrives in a bustling Chinese province looking to score a lucrative contract for his family’s sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs and manners – and calls into questions even the most basic assumptions of human conduct.