A brilliant, ballsy political fantasia/satire that imagines a Chinese Rogers and Hammerstein-like musical looking back at America's disastrous 2016 election. Playwright David Henry Hwang, composer Jeanine Tesori and director Leigh Silverman have crafted a show designed to make you laugh, to make you think and to pull at your heartstrings. I've seen the show twice and both times the gospel-tinged finale "Democracy" reduced me to tears. The cast is superb. The leads are exemplary. Hillary Clinton stops the show when she twerks upside down on a giant Big Mac. A gun-loving Mike Pence performs a SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER-esque number that would make Mel Brooks plotz. Go see it in Los Angeles or wait and see in New York where the average ticket price is over $100. (There are $25 lottery tickets and $40 tickets on Goldstar.) Take a Trump supporter and watch their heads explode.

I took my 13 year old son and we really enjoyed it. A few inappropriate parts but nothing too bad. The singing, acting, and script was Amazing.

Thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking at the same time. Pulled me right in from the first line. A little complicated, but I liked that: kept me engaged. Awesome performances.

It was amazing! From some of the previous reviews, some people just didn't get it and missed the entire point. This show had so many layers. It was a parody. It was a commentary. It was self-reflective. It was critical. It was comedy. It was tragedy. It was meta! Meta within meta! If one watched intently then the meaning burst with so much color. If you were offended by how white America was portrayed, then it was meant to offend--just so you would know exactly how Asians are offended when watching how they are portrayed on stage and in the media. Mr. Hwang topped himself with this show. It makes America take a look at itself. It was not anti democracy, as some have mistakenly thought. Even the Hillary character says she still believes in it despite losing the election. This show is for the intellectual who also likes to laugh. One has to understand the deep satire in this show. My orchestra rear seats were good. The sound was good. Kudos to the sound engineer.

I absolutely LOVED this show !!! So creative and funny . Conrad Ricamora, Francis Jue, and Alyse Alan Louis were SPECTACULAR - as was the ENTIRE cast !! The audience laughed and gave a standing ovation. If you want the usual - go see a production of OKLAHOMA !! But if you want to see something different & creative & thoroughly hilarious go to the Ahmanson ASAP !! Kudos to ALL !!

The lead of Soft Power is played by Conrad Ricamora, who is Asian American, with Filipino roots. We shouldn't make assumptions about a person's ethnicity based simply on their looks. Mr. Ricamora played the character of "Lun Tha" in the recent Broadway revival of "The King and I." As for the stabbing incident, it is based on a real-life incident that happened to the author of Soft Power, David Henry Hwang, who was randomly stabbed by an assailant while walking home, for no apparent reason.