Megumi Haggerty, the Emerson junior who plays 24-year-old Kaylin Wu, returning to the bosom of her Hong Kong family after five years in the States, shows tremendous promise. She has a lovely voice, only lightly touched by the tendency to nasality that prevails in the world of "American Idol" and has lately begun to infect musical theater. If her stage presence in this production is a bit earnest and drab, that's a fault written into the role.
During this New Year's (nian in Chinese) visit, Kaylin is trying to be all things to all people: a dutiful daughter (here this seems to mean self-sacrificing to the point of self-immolation) and a loyal partner to her traveling companion and significant other, Asha (Abria Smith), whose full significance Kaylin has not yet revealed to her family. Prior to their arrival, Kaylin's mother (Judy Tan, bustling about the apartment like a windup toy) expresses her concern that the friend in question might be a boyfriend: "I hope he's wealthy and polite / I hope to God that he's not white."
"He" is a she, and African-American, and naturally put out at being shoved into a cross-cultural closet. Smith acts the part beautifully, her warmth offsetting the inevitable slide toward moroseness, but her singing voice projects only intermittently and occasionally wanders off-key.
Playing Vincent, Kaylin's acupuncturist brother, Hyunsoo Moon takes a long time to warm up vocally, and his affect is puzzlingly occluded through much of Act One -- a riddle solved once we're told that he's meant to be boring ("When girls meet Vincent, they turn and run," admits his own mother, " 'cuz look at him: He's not much fun."). Vincent really only comes alive in the presence of his stylish fiancee, Jessie. Mariko Kanto is absolutely hysterical as this fully westernized Paris Hilton wannabe. That she sings like a screech owl only adds to the fun.
