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{{for|the film|M. Butterfly (film)}}
{{Infobox play
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'''''M. Butterfly''''' is a [[Play (theatre)|play]] by [[David Henry Hwang]]. The story, while entwined with that of the opera ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'', is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat [[Bernard Boursicot]] and [[Shi Pei Pu]], a [[
▲'''''M. Butterfly''''' is a play by [[David Henry Hwang]]. The story, while entwined with that of the opera ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'', is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat [[Bernard Boursicot]] and [[Shi Pei Pu]], a [[Peking opera]] singer. The play premiered on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1988 and won the 1988 [[Tony Award]] for Best Play.
==Productions==
''M. Butterfly'' premiered at the [[National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)|National Theatre]], Washington, DC, on February 10, 1988.<ref>Hwang, David Henry. "Foreword", '' 'M. Butterfly': With an Afterword by the Playwright'', Penguin, 1993, {{ISBN|1101077034}}</ref>
The play opened on Broadway at the [[Eugene O'Neill Theatre]] on March 20, 1988, and closed after 777 performances on January 27, 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4497|title=M. Butterfly |author=The Broadway League|work=ibdb.com|access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref> It was produced by [[Stuart Ostrow]] and directed by [[John Dexter]]; it starred [[John Lithgow]] as Gallimard and [[BD Wong]] as Song Liling. [[David Dukes]], [[Anthony Hopkins]], [[Tony Randall]], and [[John Rubinstein]] played Gallimard at various times during the original run.<ref>{{cite news|url=https:// www.nytimes.com/1988/03/21/theater/review-theater-m-butterfly-a-story-of-a-strange-love-conflict-and-betrayal.html|title=Review/Theater; 'M. Butterfly,' a Story Of a Strange Love, Conflict and Betrayal|last=Rich|first=Frank|date=21 March 1988|work=The New York Times|access-date=25 Jan 2020}}</ref> Alec Mapa was also B.D. Wong's understudy and was eventually cast to replace B. D. Wong for the role of Song Liling in the Broadway production of play.
A highly unusual abstract staging, featuring [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s opera ''Madame Butterfly'' intermixed with French pop music, had [[Kazakh people|Kazakh]] [[countertenor]] [[Erik Kurmangaliev]] star as Song; he also sang two of Butterfly's arias live during the show. This production was directed by [[Roman Viktyuk]] in [[Moscow]], Russia and ran from 1990 to 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Kurmangaliev-Erik.htm|title=Erik Kurmangaliev (Counter-tenor) – Short Biography|work=bach-cantatas.com|access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref>▼
The play was a 1989 finalist for the [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]].<ref>[http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/1989 "Finalists 1989"] pulitzer.org, accessed October 11, 2015</ref>
▲A highly unusual abstract staging, featuring [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s opera ''Madame Butterfly'' intermixed with French pop music, had [[Kazakh people|Kazakh]] [[countertenor]] [[Erik Kurmangaliev]] star as Song; he also sang two of Butterfly's arias live during the show. This production was directed by [[Roman Viktyuk]] in [[Moscow]], Russia and ran from 1990 to 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Kurmangaliev-Erik.htm|title=Erik Kurmangaliev (Counter-tenor) – Short Biography|work=bach-cantatas.com|access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref>
It is published by Plume and in an acting edition by Dramatists Play Service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=1016|title=Dramatists Play Service, Inc|work=dramatists.com|access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref> An audio recording of the play was produced by L.A. Theatre Works, with Lithgow and Wong reprising their Broadway roles along with [[Margaret Cho]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://latw.org/title/m-butterfly|title=Catalog | LATW|website=latw.org|access-date=Feb 11, 2020}}</ref>
A Broadway revival opened on October 26, 2017, at the [[Cort Theatre]], with previews beginning on October 7. Starring [[Clive Owen]] and [[Jin Ha]], the production was directed by [[Julie Taymor]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/broadway-m-butterfly-revival-announces-its-star|title=Clive Owen Will Return to Broadway in M. Butterfly Revival|first=Robert|last=Viagas|date=Jan 30, 2017|website=Playbill|access-date=Feb 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.broadway.com/buzz/188961/clive-owen-led-revival-of-david-henry-hwangs-m-butterfly-finds-its-broadway-home/|title=Clive Owen-Led Revival of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly Finds Its Broadway Home|last=Lefkowitz|first=Andy|date=2017-06-19|website=Broadway.com|access-date=2017-06-19}}</ref> David Henry Hwang made changes to the original text for the revival, mostly centering
==Plot==
The first act introduces the main character, René Gallimard, a civil servant attached to the French embassy in China. In a prison, Gallimard is serving a sentence for treason. Through a series of flashbacks and imagined conversations, Gallimard tells an audience his story about a woman that he loved and lost. He falls in love with a beautiful Chinese opera singer, Song Liling. Gallimard is unaware that all female roles in traditional [[Beijing opera]] were actually played by men, as women were banned from the stage. The first act ends with Gallimard returning to France in shame and living alone after he asks his wife, Helga,
In act three, Song reveals himself to the audience as a man, without makeup and dressed in men's clothing. Gallimard claims he only loved the idea of Butterfly, never Song himself. Gallimard throws Song and his clothing off the stage, but holds onto Butterfly's kimono. In scene three, the setting returns to Gallimard's prison cell, as he puts on makeup and Butterfly's wig and kimono. Then he stabs himself, committing suicide just as Butterfly does in the opera.
===Changes for the 2017 Broadway revival===
;Changes include:
*Song Liling initially presents as male to Gallimard, only to claim to be physically female but made to dress up as a man by her parents.
**Hwang noted in an interview that the surprise reveal that Song Liling is actually a man no longer carried the shock value it did in 1988, especially after ''[[The Crying Game]]'' used the same tactic only a few years later.<ref name="howlround"/>
*The
*Act 1 ends with Song telling Gallimard that she is pregnant (this moment originally occurred during Act 2).{{cn|date=September 2023}}
*Further information on how Song Liling managed to mislead Gallimard even while they were intimate.{{cn|date=September 2023}}
One reviewer said “in this incarnation, we’re not being seduced, but preached at.”<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brantley |first1=B. |title=Review: 'M. butterfly returns to Broadway on heavier wings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/theater/review-m-butterfly-david-henry-hwang-julie-taymor-broadway.html |work=The New York Times |date=27 October 2017 |access-date=October 27, 2017}}</ref> Another said it “was neither a critical nor a popular success…[but] an important, timely, and productive reconsideration of the play and its story in light of new acceptances of gender fluidity and the changing balance of power between Asia and the West.”<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Orenstein |first1=C. |title=M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang (review) |journal=Asian Theatre Journal |date=2018 |volume=35 |issue=2 |page=490-495 |doi=10.1353/atj.2018.0044 |s2cid=165339503 |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2018.0044}}</ref>
The 2019 production at [[South Coast Repertory]] used the 2017 revival as its source material. Directed by [[Desdemona Chiang]], Lucas Verbrugghe and Jake Manabat performed as leads. One reviewer said the story “has taken on new resonance in an era shaped by the MeToo movement, China’s geopolitical might and a more widespread understanding of [[gender identity]] issues.”<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hodgins |first1=P. |title='M. butterfly' flies a little differently 30 years after its creation |url=https://voiceofoc.org/2019/05/m-butterfly-flies-a-little-differently-30-years-after-its-creation/ |website=Voice of OC |date=20 May 2019 |access-date=July 8, 2021}}</ref> Regarding the long-debated questions of Song and Gallimard’s intimate relations, another reviewer said “Song’s defiant explanation to an over-curious French judge struck me as Hwang wanting to put an end to the prying once and for all.”<ref>{{cite web |last1=McNulty |first1=C. |title=Review: David Henry Hwang's 'M. butterfly' takes flight in a more gender-fluid era |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-m-butterfly-review-20190520-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=20 May 2019 |access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref>
== Film adaptation ==
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Hwang adapted the play for a 1993 film directed by [[David Cronenberg]] with [[Jeremy Irons]] and [[John Lone]] in the leading roles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107468/|title=M. Butterfly (1993)|author=sagg928|date=1 October 1993|work=IMDb|access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref>
== Opera adaptation ==
== Relevance to the LGBT community ==▼
In July 2022, an opera adaptation ran at the [[Santa Fe Opera House]] after being delayed for two years by the [[COVID-19]] [[pandemic]]. It was directed by James Robinson and composed by [[Huang Ruo]], with a libretto by Hwang. The leads were played by Mark Stone and Kangmin Justin Kim. One reviewer expressed mixed feelings about the performance, questioning the longevity and adaptability of M. Butterfly in a world of continuously evolving attitudes. <ref>{{cite news |last1=Allen |first1=D. |title=Review: 'M. Butterfly' metamorphoses again, as an opera |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/arts/music/m-butterfly-santa-fe-opera-review.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 2022 |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
In an interview with David Henry Hwang, the playwright states: “The lines between gay and straight become very blurred in this play, but I think he knows he's having an affair with a man. Therefore, on some level he is gay.” <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Young|first=Harvey|date=May 2016|title=An Interview with David Henry Hwang|journal=Theatre Survey|volume=57|issue=2|pages=232–237|doi=10.1017/S0040557416000077}}</ref>▼
==Reception==
[[Subhash Kak]] describes the interplay between the 1904 ''[[Madame Butterfly]]'' and 1988 ''M. Butterfly'' saying that Gallimard "falls in love, not with a person, but an imagined stereotype. His Chinese lover, Song Liling, encourages this stereotype, playing the role of the Oriental woman as demure and submissive. Gallimard, who had thought of himself as the macho Pinkerton, husband of the beautiful and fragile Butterfly."<ref>{{cite news |first=Subhash |last=Kak |author-link=Subhash Kak |date=4 May 2005 |title=Asia's two butterfly syndromes |newspaper=[[Asia Times]] |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GE04Ad02.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050504003408/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GE04Ad02.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 May 2005 |access-date = 24 October 2017}}</ref> KBPS described the latter as an inversion of the former: "here, it is the Occidental man who becomes the Butterfly: submissive, easily trapped, and ultimately destroyed."<ref name="kbps">{{cite news |work=KPBS On Air Magazine |date=August 1993 |title='M. Butterfly' at North Coast Repertory Theatre |url=https://patlauner.com/review/m-butterfly-at-the-north-coast-repertory-theatre/}}</ref>
[[John Gross]] called it "a mess, intellectually speaking" but also "very well worth seeing".<ref>{{cite news |last=Gross |first=John |author-link=John Gross |date=10 April 1988 |title=A 'Butterfly' That Hovers Over The Issues of Racism, Sexism |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/theater/about-arts-new-york-butterfly-that-hovers-over-issues-racism-sexism-imperialism.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525083809/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/theater/about-arts-new-york-butterfly-that-hovers-over-issues-racism-sexism-imperialism.html |archive-date=May 25, 2015}}</ref>
▲=== Relevance to the LGBT community ===
▲In an interview with David Henry Hwang, the playwright states: “The lines between gay and straight become very blurred in this play, but I think he knows he's having an affair with a man. Therefore, on some level he is gay.” <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Young|first=Harvey|date=May 2016|title=An Interview with David Henry Hwang|journal=Theatre Survey|volume=57|issue=2|pages=232–237|doi=10.1017/S0040557416000077|s2cid=163905085 }}</ref>
In a 2014 review for the Windy City Times, Jonathan Abarbanel states that Song Liling “may be gay but it's a secondary point raised only as a way by which Chinese government agents can control him. As an exploration of sexuality, it's about the Divine Androgyne who Song Liling may recognize and exploit, and which Gallimard certainly recognizes and embraces in the play's closing moments.” <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/THEATER-REVIEW-M-Butterfly/47590.html|title=THEATER REVIEW M. Butterfly - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News Archive|website=Windy City Times|date=28 May 2014 |access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
Hwang talked to several people with nonconforming gender identities to get better insight into the character of Song, but he ultimately stressed that the character is not transgender. “He recognized how Song might be differently received by a modern audience more savvy about the wide spectrum of gender identity.” <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/this-30-year-old-play-about-gender-and-asian-identity-is|title=This 30-Year-Old Play About Gender And Asian Identity Is More Relevant Than Ever|website=BuzzFeed News|date=10 November 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
Ilka Saal writes: “The playwright uses the figure of the transvestite to lay bare the construction and performativity of gender and culture. Yet he stops short of questioning compulsory heterosexuality at its base, and thereby fails to use queer desire in order to open up interstices, categories of 'thirdness,' in this tight homophobic structure.”<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Saal|first=Ilka|date=1998|title=Performance and Perception: Gender, Sexuality, and Culture in David Henry Hwang's 'M. Butterfly|journal=Amerikastudien / American Studies|volume=43|issue=4|pages=629–644|jstor=41157422}}</ref>
In an article for Pride Source, Pruett and Beer state: “Gallimard is a man who thinks he is heterosexual, but is in fact a practicing homosexual for 20 years. Song takes on the role of a woman, but always self-identifies as a gay man, not a transgendered person.” <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pridesource.com/article/53189/|title='M. Butterfly' layers on levels of self-delusion|last=Staff|first=B. T. L.|website=Pride Source|date=10 May 2012 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
Christian Lewis, when writing about the 2017 revival, wrote in the [[Huffington
==Awards and nominations==
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==External links==
{{Portal|Theatre|1980s|United States|
* {{IBDB show|5677}}
* {{IMDb title|
{{David Henry Hwang}}
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[[Category:Plays by David Henry Hwang]]
[[Category:Drama Desk Award-winning plays]]
[[Category:
[[Category:LGBTQ-related plays]]
[[Category:Tony Award-winning plays]]
[[Category:Plays set in China]]
[[Category:Cross-dressing in literature]]
[[Category:Plays adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Madama Butterfly]]
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