King of the Yees – 21 October 2026
Towards the end of King of the Yees, Lauren Yee’s onstage representation of herself (Kelly Marie Tran) acknowledges that sometimes you start writing one thing and end up with another. There is no truer way to describe the feeling of watching King of the Yees. Every time it started to feel like something, another thing took over. Part underwhelming setup, part history lesson, part dance adventure, part societal criticism, and part cultural celebration, King of the Yees feels unfocused and unfinished, as ideas take flight with nowhere to land. Though it contains many enjoyable moments and scenes, it doesn’t come together as a cohesive piece that can succinctly be summed up into a thematic through line.
Some elements of King of the Yees are over explained, while others are completely lost on the audience. The show begins with a device where two actors playing Lauren Yee (Maureen Sebastian) and her father Larry (David Shih) enter. They are quickly followed by two more actors playing Lauren Yee (Kelly Marie Tran) and her father Larry (Francis Jue). This second set of actors are the “real” Lauren and Larry while the first two are in a play Lauren wrote. The house lights come up and the actors proceed to explain how a play works and who the Yees are, pulling in another actor (Jon Norman Schneider) who was planted in the audience. This bit is tedious and unnecessary— it’s also most of act one. The writing here is confusing at best, boring at worst.
The second act is a different vibe. Though it at times borders on cringey, the second act tells a fully coherent story of a daughter searching for her missing father and getting to know and love Chinatown and her own Chinese heritage along the way. In this act, it is clear what Lauren (Kelly Marie Tran) needs to do to accomplish her goal, and the ensemble steps in to create the world necessary for each successive step. The lighting (Jiyoun Chang) steps into surrealism, and the storytelling stops being presentational. There are several funny moments, aided by music, sound (Fan Zhang), and pop culture. The audience warms to Tran’s portrayal of Lauren. This act could be a play unto itself and honestly would be more entertaining without the fatigue from the first half.
Playwright Lauren Yee doesn’t really need everything she chose to keep. To circle back to her admission in act two that sometimes one starts out writing something and ends up with something else, it’s important to note that you can edit whatever you ended up with. You can go back and make it make sense. You can go back and cut things that no longer serve your narrative. I have loved some of Lauren’s other works, and I wonder if what tripped her up this time was putting representations of herself on stage and wanting them to represent every part of her being. In a play there isn’t always time for that, and sometimes it’s important to present what’s needed even when it’s not the entire truth. King of the Yees didn’t work for me, despite many wonderful moments that made me laugh and smile. In order for this show to work, playwright Lauren Yee would need to focus a little more clearly on what she wants it to say and refining the text to make sure it supports that message.
I attended this performance on a press pass from Blake Zidell & Associates.
