Does This Butterfly Soar?

I saw M. Butterfly the first time it was on Broadway almost 30 years ago and had to return to see what changes the playwright did in this revival. Of course after seeing it, I couldn't really recall 30 years ago to know the difference. I've read there were many rewrites to put more of the real story it's based on into this script and yet there were other changes I noticed in David Henry Hwang's (first Asian-American playwright on Broadway back in '88) Tony award-winning script. If you do not know the premise of this play, perhaps you should stop reading as I will be sharing some secrets as I write.
I remember loving this play about espionage and culture differences and deception. I was 19 and wide-eyed back then. Audiences were shocked by the big reveal, much as we were when watching the film The Crying Game. That's one of the problems with a show that has a big reveal: audiences find out before going in. So this time around, we already know what's coming. In 2017, transgender is in the news all the time and we know more about men living as women. So the fact that a French embassy official living in Beijing in the 60s and falls for a beautiful 'woman' while she's performing on stage is still a lovely premise in 2017, it's just that the audience is in on the secret before the lead character finds out.
Speaking of lead character, Clive Owen plays the geeky, nerdy, some-what shy Rene Gallimard. I recall being blown away by John Lithgow in the original production. Mr. Owen brings his own to the role - holding his arms awkwardly and twitching his hands to convey nerves and playing "least likely kid to be invited to a party". However, Mr. Owen is sexy and handsome and one would never believe he's had issues with women in the past and married an older woman out of convenience. I love him in almost every film he does and he's fine in this role. I just couldn't get past how wrong he looked for it. I found him doing more of the seducing than Song Liling. While the power of the man is important to the story, the fact that Liling as the frail butterfly is totally in control is much more interesting and should drive the story.
Jin Ha (and NYU grad) was plucked from the Chicago Hamilton cast (where he was the first non-white person to play the King) to play the role of Song Liling which made BD Wong a star in the late 80s. Mr. Ha transforms beautifully into a woman, has the high singing voice of a bird, and portrays the cunning and deceitful nature of his character very well. (I believe this was where some of the rewrites happened as I don't recall getting so much of this character in the 'now' portions: as the two leads are conveying this entire story to the audience as a flashback. We also get explicit details about how he faked having sex with Gallimard-something left out of the original.) 
I enjoyed this revival and I'm glad that I saw it, but for some reason the overall production didn't wow me as it had before. Some of that rest in the hands of director Julie Taymor: a goddess at creating pictures and images on stage that will stay with you. In this case, some of that (constant moving screens to show different scenes while reminding us we're always in China, opera/dance 'movements' that go on too long, allowing all actors to speak in their native tongue giving us a Brit and an Aussie sharing childhood stories where audiences are concentrating on their opposing accents) works against the beautiful story that Hwang has written. Sometimes less is more.
If you've never seen the show (as my friend who saw it with me hadn't and was completely pulled in), give it a try. The show speaks volumes to masculine oppression which is very timely today as more and more people come out about sexual harassment by men in power positions. You'll be entertained, you'll be enthralled, and perhaps you won't mind that Clive Owen is a sexy beast wanting you to believe he's not adept at the art of intimacy. 
I had to share this photo of the original couple the play is based on (seen here at their trial in 1986). Bernard Boursicot was a low-level French foreign service worker who fell for Shi Pei Pu - an actor who worked as a woman on stage. Shi Pei Pu passed away, but Boursicot is still alive and was interviewed by a director just this past summer.