David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, which won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play, officially opened March 20, 1988, at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Hwang—whose subsequent Broadway plays include Golden Child, Chinglish, and this season's Yellow Face—made history as the first Asian-American playwright to win the Tony for Best Play.
Based on a true story and inspired by Puccini's Madame Butterfly, this provocative and captivating story of lust, politics, and betrayal follows French diplomat Rene Gallimard, who falls in love with Chinese opera singer Song Liling, who, to him, is the "perfect woman."
Song’s gender identity and political allegiance are revealed over the course of the decades-long relationship.
In his review for The New York Times, Frank Rich wrote, "While ostensibly constructed as a series of Peter Shafferesque flashbacks narrated by Gallimard from prison, the play is as intricate as an infinity of Chinese boxes. Even as we follow the narrative of the lovers' affair, it is being refracted through both overt and disguised burlesque deconstructions of Madama Butterfly."
About BD Wong's career-making performance as opera singer Song Liling (opposite the Gallimard of John Lithgow), Rich said that the production "rises to full power in its final act, when the evening's triumphant performance, Mr. Wong's mesmerizing account of the transvestite diva, hits its own tragic high notes."
Wong told Playbill in 2003 producers of M. Butterfly asked him to use initials instead of his first name, Bradd, "because [the character's] gender was in question. I did it, with the idea of going back to Bradd, but the initials sort of stuck."
The original Broadway company also included John Getz, Rose Gregorio, George N. Martin, Lori Tan Chinn, Lindsay Frost, Jamie H. J. Guan, Alec Mapa, and Chris Odo.
Wong, in his Broadway debut, would subsequently win the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play, the first actor of Asian descent to do so. In his acceptance speech, the stage and future screen star said, "I would like to thank the brother-and-sister song-and-dance team, which have recently moved into my body and are now living there." Wong would go on to star in the Jurassic Park franchise, Oz, Law & Order: SVU, and an Emmy-nominated performance in Mr. Robot. His subsequent Broadway outings include Face Value; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; and Pacific Overtures.
The production also won a Tony for John Dexter's direction and received nominations for Lithgow, Best Scenic Design (Eiko Ishioka), Best Costume Design (Ishioka), and Best Lighting Design (Andy Phillips).
M. Butterfly would go on to play a total of nine previews and 777 regular performances before closing January 27, 1990. David Dukes, Tony Randall, and John Rubinstein all played Gallimard during the original run; Wong was succeeded by Alec Mapa.
Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins starred in a 1989 production in London's West End. Jeremy Irons and John Lone headed the cast of the 1993 film adaptation, directed by David Cronenberg.
A Broadway revival of M. Butterfly, starring Clive Owen as Gallimard and Jin Ha as Song Liling, played the Cort Theatre October–December 2017. Tony winner Julie Taymor directed the production, which incorporated elements inspired by the real-life affair that served as the initial springboard for the play.
Learn what other theatre milestones happened on March 20 by visiting the Playbill Vault.
Below, look back on the original Broadway production of M. Butterfly.
