Theatre
Biography
Click here for a complete Listing of BD Wong's Theatre
Repertoire.
Whilst
at Lincoln, he formally studied drama, starring in a string
of productions, whilst also becoming deeply involved in
other aspects of dramatic production, from designing and
producing production posters to the designing and
construction of their sets. He went on to San Francisco
State University, and is named in SFSU's "A History of SF
State" web page as one of their famous alumni, though in
fact BD Wong dropped out, leaving the West Coast for New
York City, where he was able to develop his craft doing
dinner theatre and performing in off-Broadway productions
under the name Bradd Wong.
Bradd Wong's professional stage debut came in a 1982
production of Androcles and the Lion at New York's Town
Hall, the first of many minor parts.
Shortly
after Androcles, BD Wong returned to the West Coast, and
had begun taking bit parts on television shows like
Blacke's Magic, Simon and Simon & Sesame Street. This
would continue until 1986, when he made his big screen
debut with a fleeting appearance in The Karate Kid Part 2.
Wong
started to receive coaching from veteran actor Donald
Hotton, and in 1985 took the bold step of flying back to
the East Coast to audition for the role of Song Liling in
David Henry Hwang's then new stage production, M.
Butterfly, which was to star
John Lithgow.
Wong had to endure a five month audition period before
he knew the part was his, and would play the role for
most of the show's 777 performance run. Three other
actors shared the tenure of playing Rene Gallimard
opposite BD Wong, namely
David Dukes
(Spence in Slappy and the Stinkers),
John Rubenstein
(the original Pippin!) and
Tony Randall.
Tony Randall himself described his performance as Gallimard
as the one role he would like to be remembered for.
Wong
would go on to earn considerable critical acclaim for his
portrayal of the role, a role which is still identified as
being solely his, despite numerous other stage productions
and a movie adaptation since then.
BD
Wong became an icon and a much photographed celebrity.
Annie Liebowitz took a photo of BD as Song Liling for a Gap
advertisement. The City of New York also used Wong's face
as part of its famed 'I Love New York' advertisements. A
few years later, Greg Gorman would also take his photo.
BD
Wong was also featured in the annual edition of
Life: The Year in Pictures
1988, his photo occupying an entire page of that
publication. Song Liling had become an icon of the
Eighties. For Wong, despite already have been an actor for
a number of years,
1988 was the year it all began. Wong would go on to
diversify into a plethora of stage parts never before
played by an Asian American before ...
