Theater Review: Mr. Yunioshi

SARASOTA – Mr. Yunioshi, a one-man comedy that explores Asian stereotypes through Mickey Rooney's performance as a Japanese character in the Hollywood classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's, opened Wednesday night at Urbanite Theater in downtown Sarasota.

LA-based actor and Tampa native Jonathan Elijah Cho does a masterful job of exploring the 1960 performance, in which Rooney plays a cartoonish Japanese landlord modeled on offensive, WWII-era depictions of Asians, through a 2022-styled lens.

While Cho plays Rooney's well-known confidence to delightful comedic effect, he nevertheless manages to present the actor as much more sympathetic than one might imagine, given Cho's own Asian heritage. Rooney is depicted as a somewhat aloof, fading star, desperately attempting to remain relevant in the post-leading man era of his career who is steered away from an attempt at playing the character straight by the studio.

Cho is clearly interested in exploring not only the fact that such offensive depictions were once commonly accepted but the way in which Asian males have continued to be limited by roles in a Western entertainment culture that rarely allows for such actors to play anything approaching a dashing lead, let alone being presented as something even approaching a sex symbol.

The play feels much more like a humorous exploration that the audience is invited to accompany the actor on than a lecture on a valid social issue, and I think the utter absence of on-the-nose preachiness combined with genuine hilarity is why the performance works so well. It's rare that one can find themselves getting the point on such an issue while still having a genuinely delightful time doing so.

Cho wrote the play and first performed it in 2016 and it has continued to evolve after runs in Hollywood and New York City. The Urbanite production, which runs through Sunday, is already sold out. However, Cho will take the play to St. Pete's freeFall Theatre Company next (September 15-18), where a limited number of tickets remain available. Visit the freeFall website for more info.