David Henry Hwang
Librettist
David Henry Hwang’s work includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (revival upcoming, 2023), Flower Drum Song and Disney’s Tarzan. M. Butterfly was revived on Broadway in 2017, directed by Julie Taymor.
His newest musical, Soft Power, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, opened in 2019 at New York’s Public Theatre, where it received four Outer Critics Honors, a 2021 Grammy Nomination, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, Hwang has written thirteen libretti, including five works with composer Philip Glass, most recently Circus Days and Nights for the Malmö Opera in 2021. He is a 2006 Grammy Award winner for Ainadamar, with music by Osvaldo Golijov. Hwang has written three works with Huang Ruo and two with Bright Sheng, as well as operas with Unsuk Chin and Howard Shore.
Hwang’s screenplays include M. Butterfly and he is currently penning the live-action feature musical remake of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as an Anna May Wong biopic to star Gemma Chan. In television, he was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019 and is now creating and show running the upcoming TV series adaptation of the bestseller Billion Dollar Whale. He also co-wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop music icon Prince.
Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He is also a professor of theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts. Hwang was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018 and his star was unveiled in 2022 on the Lucille Lortel Playwrights Sidewalk in New York City.)
Photo by Gregory Costanzo.