Laowang

Laowang: A Chinatown King Lear is a play written by Alex Lin and directed by Joshua Kahan Brody. Part of 59E59 Theaters' winter 2025–2026 season, it reinterprets King Lear in Chinatown, Manhattan.

History

A cast and crew was announced on October 2, 2025. The show officially opened on November 16 and ran through to December 14.

Cast

Cindy Cheung as Amy Choy and others
Wai Ching Ho as A-Poh
Amy Keum as Lai-Fa Choy and others
Jon Norman Schneider as Steven Choy
Daisuke Tsuji as Wesley Chiu and others

Critical reception

TheaterMania lauded Lin's writing and Brody's direction, as well as "Sharp performances" from the cast.
Exeunt concluded that "Rewriting King Lear is a high-risk, high-reward strategy" and felt that Laowang fell short in developing its characters, keeping its tone and modernism consistent, and otherwise tackling the source material imaginatively.