Asian-American actor J. Elijah Cho turns the tables on the dubious Golden Era Hollywood practice of casting Caucasian actors as “Orientals” in the bitingly hilarious Mr. Yunioshi, Cho’s thought-provoking look back at the 1930s/40s movie star now perhaps best known for playing Audrey Hepburn’s angry Japanese landlord in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

No one who’s watched the 1962 Blake Edwards romcom classic can forget Hollywood’s “Andy Hardy” sporting bottle cap glasses and fake buck teeth while mangling his “l’s” and “r’s” in lines like, “Miss Go-right-ry? This time I’m warning you. I am definite-ry this time going to carring the po-reece!”

And if by some chance you don’t recall Mickey as I. Y. Yuniyoshi, the instantly likeable Cho will clue you in as to just how the four-time Oscar nominee* ended up undertaking a role that should by rights have gone to an Asian actor had it not been the early 1960s and the tail end of the dreaded Hays Code.

“If there’s one thing I’m good at,” Cho’s Mickey gleefully informs us. “It’s being good at lots of things! Acting, singing, dancing, and sex!” the latter performed with, among others, Hollywood goddess Ava Gardner (the first of Mickey’s eight wives), with whom he “engaged in many, many conjugal attempts to get a little Mickey Rooney.” (Those attempts failed but his later wives ended up giving him a grand total of nine little Rooneys.)

Then comes the exciting news that Mickey is being considered for a role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a title that leads him to wonder, “Who is Tiffany and why are we having breakfast together? Do we have sex? Are we married?”

And much as he’d like to play Audrey’s role himself (since, after all, he’s Mickey Rooney and Mickey Rooney can play any part!), he’s more likely to be considered for one of Holly Golightly’s male suitors, right?

The one role Mickey doesn’t think he’d be up for is Mr. Yunioshi, though he can’t help wondering how Hollywood will manage to find a “funny Oriental guy” to play him. “They’re all so serious, right? It would be weird if I got it, right?”

Well, as anyone who’s seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s can tell you, weird or not, Mickey got the part!

Not wanting to flub up the accent, he orders Chinese takeout, only to be informed by the delivery guy that Yunioshi is a Japanese name, not Chinese. (Who knew there was a difference!)

Mickey then contacts a Japanese leading man with the kind of deep, sexy voice that will make Yunioshi the sexy Japanese landlord he must surely be, that is if he can convince Seven Samurai star Toshiro Mifune to be his dialect coach.

Imagine Mickey’s dismay when a package arrives from Hollywood containing assorted accoutrements designed to turn turn all-American Mickey into this:

Leading man Cho’s raspy-voiced, gleefully full-of-himself star turn in the most unexpected of roles is just one reason Mr. Yunioshi won Best Solo Show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival a few years back.

So is seeing the engaging young Korean-American proving that turnabout is fair play by upending the once customary Hollywood practice of yellowface.

Along the way, Cho dons assorted wigs and accessories to embody Mickey’s favorite costar Judy Garland (in Europe making Judgment at Nuremburg),

Truman “Capoot”(who can’t believe the travesty Hollywood is making of his novella), and the aforementioned Mifune (who Mickey finds out has been doing “these Japanese Shakespeare movies with this director Akira Kurosawa.”)

 And finally, in his own voice, Cho muses on the need for Hollywood to finally get its act together and begin casting Asian-American actors in roles that to this day still end up being played by men with last names like Cruise, Damon, and Pitt.

Mr. Yunioshi is produced by Ari Stidham and David Stidham. Jasmine Ejan has choreographed a jaunty dance sequence to show off Mickey’s footwork pizzazz. Jeanne Marie Valleroy is production stage manager. Philip Sokoloff is publicist.

In a solo star turn that will have you laughing at Mickey’s one-liners, cringing at the stereotypes and misconceptions he evokes, and reflecting on the ongoing need for change, J. Elijah Cho lights up the Sierra Madre Playhouse stage like nobody’s business. Hollywood would be wise to take note.

*Cho says Mickey was nominated for three Oscars. He actually got four Academy Award nominations (between 1939 and 1979) and was given an honorary Oscar in 1983 “in recognition of his 50 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances.”

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. T
www.sierramadreplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
January 27. 2023
Photos: Rob Slaven, @downtowncarol

Tags: J. Elijah Cho, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mickey Rooney, Sierra Madre Playhouse