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Straight White Men / Untitled Feminist Show
“Young Jean Lee’s Untitled Feminist Show is one of the more moving and imaginative works I have ever seen on the American stage…what makes it so transcendent is its delicious ability to alternate the pain of being different with a sense of humor about lives not lived among the status quo.” —Hilton Als, New Yorker
“The twisty, turbulent, argumentative work of Young Jean Lee…will make you flinch, but it’s hard to look away…Lee has always been interested in exposing how we perform our identities. But in Straight White Men, she drills into something more core. Shuck off, subvert, cleave to your gender or race all you like, but a universal horror of weakness remains—a collective orientation toward status, power, control.”
—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
“Who said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak? Both are pretty damn fierce in director Young Jean Lee’s all-nude dance suite cheekily (but purposefully) called Untitled Feminist Show. In a scant (and scantily clad) hour, Lee and her gutsy dancers try on a dizzying variety of modes and masks to shake up gender norms.” —David Cote, Time Out New York
“Straight White Men might be the most subversive thing that Young Jean Lee, one of American theater’s most keenly seditious practitioners, has ever done.” —Alexis Soloski, Guardian
“Young Jean Lee is, hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times
Young Jean Lee, with Straight White Men, became the first Asian-American woman to have her play produced on Broadway. She has directed her work in more than thirty cities around the world, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a PEN Literary Award.
“The twisty, turbulent, argumentative work of Young Jean Lee…will make you flinch, but it’s hard to look away…Lee has always been interested in exposing how we perform our identities. But in Straight White Men, she drills into something more core. Shuck off, subvert, cleave to your gender or race all you like, but a universal horror of weakness remains—a collective orientation toward status, power, control.”
—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
“Who said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak? Both are pretty damn fierce in director Young Jean Lee’s all-nude dance suite cheekily (but purposefully) called Untitled Feminist Show. In a scant (and scantily clad) hour, Lee and her gutsy dancers try on a dizzying variety of modes and masks to shake up gender norms.” —David Cote, Time Out New York
“Straight White Men might be the most subversive thing that Young Jean Lee, one of American theater’s most keenly seditious practitioners, has ever done.” —Alexis Soloski, Guardian
“Young Jean Lee is, hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times
Young Jean Lee, with Straight White Men, became the first Asian-American woman to have her play produced on Broadway. She has directed her work in more than thirty cities around the world, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a PEN Literary Award.
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 6, 2017
This comedy by Young Jean Lee has been making the rounds for the past couple years in major cities, and I believe it has come up for a major award(s) recently, which is how it came to my attention.
Lee looks into the heart of a family of white men at Christmas--their strange rituals, their familiar cruelties, their tendency to coordinate attacks, their blind support for one another. A father and three grown college-educated sons meet to share the holiday, eating take-out Chinese in new flannel pajamas, sitting side-by-side on a too-small couch and teasing one another mercilessly. They are so white.
Young Jean Lee examines how aware these men are of their whiteness, privilege, and opportunity in their own society by having one of the brothers, Matt, not fulfill what the others think is his role, but also, we discover, his birthright.
Having someone look closely at white ritual in America could be a harsh experience but Lee makes it silly, funny, and mostly non-threatening while raising important questions around what constitutes privilege and how far each of us as individuals should go to erase, ignore, eliminate those special rights granted to the majority class.
Matt is smarter than the others, has the best education and had the most promise. He is the one doing the least 'moving and shaking' amongst the brothers. We are a little surprised to find they resent that pulling back, and insist he carve a productive role for himself in society. But Matt is troubled by all that he sees and knows and tries everyday to find his way in a society that doesn't make much moral or ethical sense.
As a theatre piece, the play runs about an hour and a half. Most of that is taken up with the weird behaviors of white American men in exclusive and close proximity to their families. We know there is something we are meant to see though the guffaws and foolishness because of the starkness of the title and because one of the men begins to cry less than halfway through. This can't be right, we think.
The ending and the final pages come as a shock, then, they are so profound. "There is nothing you can do to erase the problem of your own existence," the youngest and brightest among them claim their mother would have said. "Do not despair, and keep searching for answers" is the advice from one who has loved them. It seems like very good advice, indeed.
Lee looks into the heart of a family of white men at Christmas--their strange rituals, their familiar cruelties, their tendency to coordinate attacks, their blind support for one another. A father and three grown college-educated sons meet to share the holiday, eating take-out Chinese in new flannel pajamas, sitting side-by-side on a too-small couch and teasing one another mercilessly. They are so white.
Young Jean Lee examines how aware these men are of their whiteness, privilege, and opportunity in their own society by having one of the brothers, Matt, not fulfill what the others think is his role, but also, we discover, his birthright.
Having someone look closely at white ritual in America could be a harsh experience but Lee makes it silly, funny, and mostly non-threatening while raising important questions around what constitutes privilege and how far each of us as individuals should go to erase, ignore, eliminate those special rights granted to the majority class.
Matt is smarter than the others, has the best education and had the most promise. He is the one doing the least 'moving and shaking' amongst the brothers. We are a little surprised to find they resent that pulling back, and insist he carve a productive role for himself in society. But Matt is troubled by all that he sees and knows and tries everyday to find his way in a society that doesn't make much moral or ethical sense.
As a theatre piece, the play runs about an hour and a half. Most of that is taken up with the weird behaviors of white American men in exclusive and close proximity to their families. We know there is something we are meant to see though the guffaws and foolishness because of the starkness of the title and because one of the men begins to cry less than halfway through. This can't be right, we think.
The ending and the final pages come as a shock, then, they are so profound. "There is nothing you can do to erase the problem of your own existence," the youngest and brightest among them claim their mother would have said. "Do not despair, and keep searching for answers" is the advice from one who has loved them. It seems like very good advice, indeed.
July 14, 2015
Two stars for what it was trying to do, as I can't think of another examination of the self loathing of many straight white men. But it was neither fish nor fowl - not truly naturalistic, as the characters seemed to be too generic, and I didn't feel emotionally engaged with them since they were so symbolic. Maybe that was the point, but it left for an unsatisfying read.
March 6, 2022
Terrifying. Young Jean Lee uses straight white male characters to highlight the deep fears of failure to achieve what others expect of us and a weakness that we don’t want to overcome that runs in all of us. The characters are charming, funny, goofy, and very loving. They remind me of my own brothers. Actually, this whole family dynamic reminds me of my own, and I don’t like it. No siree. The more love there is between family members, the more crushing the blow is when one of them decides to give up.
It’s easy to think there’s no plot until the last part, especially if you don’t pay attention to what the characters are feeling. This is a play that I would love to see a performance of
It’s easy to think there’s no plot until the last part, especially if you don’t pay attention to what the characters are feeling. This is a play that I would love to see a performance of
July 26, 2019
fucking cool framing with the suggestion of poc trans actors as the guides/keepers/emcees of the story, but i don't know if it is incorporated throughout the bulk of the script enough to really be effective? especially as they don't give any sort of closing remarks... dunno! there's also really nothing in terms of a plot and the ending made me just feel . like shit? not like i learned so much but hm, its always hard to tell what the final impact would be for me through text alone.
January 14, 2018
Lee's dramedy will be staged on Broadway this fall, in a production sure to get noticed, since it stars Tom Skerritt and Armie Hammer... and will also mark the first production by an Asian-American female to be staged on the Great White Way (pun intentional!) So while that alone lends it some cachet, the piece itself is certainly an odd one. Lee is known for her more avant-garde stylings, but this is largely (aside from some - meant-to-be - jarring surrounding elements) a naturalistic family drama, investigating the privilege that both supports and undermines the titular characters. It centers around the Christmas get together of an aging father and his three 40-something sons (Hammer will apparently play Matt, the oldest of these, a part he is about 15 years too young to portray convincingly!). The problem is that the play meanders and skirts around the central issue, which is that Matt seems to have been rendered inert by his rejection of his male privilege - but that really doesn't become apparent until literally the closing moments of the play; that end scene would probably make for an interesting OPENING scene to a much better script.
May 19, 2020
Initially, I was confused by Young Jean Lee's Broadway debut play. As I was reading, I kept thinking, "straight, white men" don't act like that?! Then, I began to think that was the point. In undoing centuries of cultural appropriation from the hegemonic class, this play is inverting the lens to the group that did most of the appropriating. By the time I got to the third act, I was less sure of that interpretation, but more invested in the characters and their classic crisis of masculinity. An interesting read if you're invested in representations of gender and whiteness, but not as scathing a critique of race and economics as other works such as "Fairview", "Sweat", or "Claybourne Park."
November 4, 2017
I'd like to see this staged and then stay for the conversation afterward. There are many things in this play, but what struck me most was the freakishly stagey and performative nature of straight white masculinity tropes.
October 9, 2018
Beautifully written and filled with several surprises. This play will provide the reader so much to discuss and think about.
October 5, 2018
Holy crap what a great play! One of my colleagues at work was just in a production of this and I, unluckily was unable to see him in it, luckily he lent me his copy of the script. Absolutely fascinating-so much to think about with this one, needs to be digested and discussed.
February 12, 2024
Although life presents them with less hurdles, all is not sunshine and lollipops for this privileged group, but it beats the alternatives.
January 19, 2022
Maybe I didn't get it. Maybe it got lost in translation - US masculinity is very different to UK - but these weren't straight white men I recognise. I enjoyed the stage craft elements tho they weren't fully sustained. As with all plays tho, you gotta be there. I am sure it would come off in production. It has some very funny physical humour and is an interesting commentary on playwrighting with some neat reflexivity. Would definitely want to see it staged.
May 6, 2017
Not quite as incisive as some of her other work. A bit more cartoony. Matt's a fascinating character though.
September 21, 2020
3.5 stars.
Untitled Feminist Show: In reading Untitled Feminist Show, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing out by reading it rather than seeing it performed. I think most plays, in general, are better seen than read (although I do still get a great deal of joy from reading them), but this one, in particular, has no dialogue, and seeing the movement on stage, seeing the dances, seeing the expressions of the actors, this seems so much more relevant than just reading the text. I still liked a lot of what I read, but some of it was just not what I wanted from READING a play.
Straight White Men: Reading Straight White Men was actually pretty fun. The characters were way more sympathetic and relatable than I expected, and it actually had some great laughs, although the ending made me sad. I'd still love the chance to see it performed, but it's definitely the kind of play that's still a joy to read.
Untitled Feminist Show: In reading Untitled Feminist Show, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing out by reading it rather than seeing it performed. I think most plays, in general, are better seen than read (although I do still get a great deal of joy from reading them), but this one, in particular, has no dialogue, and seeing the movement on stage, seeing the dances, seeing the expressions of the actors, this seems so much more relevant than just reading the text. I still liked a lot of what I read, but some of it was just not what I wanted from READING a play.
Straight White Men: Reading Straight White Men was actually pretty fun. The characters were way more sympathetic and relatable than I expected, and it actually had some great laughs, although the ending made me sad. I'd still love the chance to see it performed, but it's definitely the kind of play that's still a joy to read.
March 30, 2025
"Straight White Men" deconstructs masculinity, privilege, and belonging through the lens of a family reunion. Young Jean Lee flips expectations, forcing us to question what it means to be "successful" in a world where privilege should guarantee happiness.
Masculinity is explored through leadership vs. support, paralleling "For Colored Girls"—where roles differ across identities. The brothers easily navigate privilege, but Matt, who lacks ambition, unsettles them as well as his father. They call him a "loser", struggling to place him within their worldview. His contentment with being useful rather than happy confounds them, revealing how belonging is tied to societal expectations.
Matt’s journey is a reverse coming-of-age—he doesn’t rise but disappoints. His struggles with happiness expose the weight of privilege: if he should be happy, why isn’t he? Lee delivers a sharp, unsettling critique of how we measure worth, forcing us to reconsider what success truly means.
Masculinity is explored through leadership vs. support, paralleling "For Colored Girls"—where roles differ across identities. The brothers easily navigate privilege, but Matt, who lacks ambition, unsettles them as well as his father. They call him a "loser", struggling to place him within their worldview. His contentment with being useful rather than happy confounds them, revealing how belonging is tied to societal expectations.
Matt’s journey is a reverse coming-of-age—he doesn’t rise but disappoints. His struggles with happiness expose the weight of privilege: if he should be happy, why isn’t he? Lee delivers a sharp, unsettling critique of how we measure worth, forcing us to reconsider what success truly means.
August 1, 2018
Yes, the three brothers and their father are straight white men and, yes, they have clearly benefited from straight white male privilege. But they clearly know that and are at pains to admit it. The play traces the very different ways that the brothers have responded to that knowledge, and in the process asks larger questions that transcend their being straight and white and male, questions about the possibilities for purpose and goodness in a materialistic and often uncaring time and place.
I've seen two performances of the play, one an excellent reading and the other a fine production at DC's Studio Theatre. As with all of Young Jean Lee's plays, Straight White Men doesn't shy away from ambiguity, proposes no facile answers, and prompts many searching questions.
I've seen two performances of the play, one an excellent reading and the other a fine production at DC's Studio Theatre. As with all of Young Jean Lee's plays, Straight White Men doesn't shy away from ambiguity, proposes no facile answers, and prompts many searching questions.
August 4, 2018
I saw this play on Broadway two weeks ago. Happily found a copy of the script and relived the genius that this play is. Initially approaching the play, one can either be perplexed by the subject, be provoked, and seek interests about the straight white man. I must say that I am on the side that fights against the white, abled, and heterosexual man and plan to establish my own agency as a queer mixed person of color. However, Lee does not just position us against them but orients us to make us empathize what I thought would be the polarized opposite than me. What we believe makes a straight white man great is in fact his flaw. But in order for me to be successful, must I exhibit the same qualities as him? I don’t know. The play is thought-provoking indeed.
November 15, 2018
I've always been a fan of Young Jean Lee, but this play MIGHT be my favorite. It really feels like a slice of life play that hits incredibly close to home. These are characters that I know, that I'm friends with, that I've grown up with. This is also very similar to holidays with my family. In general, I just enjoyed this play immensely, and I think that the conversations are definitely ones that I've had with friends and family after a few beers. Lastly, it just makes me wish I had siblings, in a weird way.
June 28, 2021
I've been wanting to read some of Young Jean Lee's plays forever, and I'm so glad I got to read these two. Untitled Feminist Show was mostly a movement piece but had many moments of meaningful dialogue/movement/engagement that I would love to see staged. Reading it only provided me so much, but knowing me I would love to watch/act in a show like that. Straight White Men was really interesting, and I definitely appreciated how the events of the play escalated to the end. I thought the characterization was particularly well done. Overall, I’d like to read more of her work!
August 22, 2021
...I'm not quite sure what Young Jean Lee was going for here.
It seems strangely incomplete where there are ideas (such as the stagehands at the beginning) and the entire plot seems thrown together and is meant to sound intelligent and revolutionary but instead, it shows that Young Jean Lee doesn't know what the fuck she is doing.
It seems strangely incomplete where there are ideas (such as the stagehands at the beginning) and the entire plot seems thrown together and is meant to sound intelligent and revolutionary but instead, it shows that Young Jean Lee doesn't know what the fuck she is doing.
December 16, 2023
Fascinating front to back- daring and confusing and artfully crafted. So cool to see how deftly she can manage both absolute experiment movement creation, AND a straight up text based narrative “well-made play” with a twist. 4/5 because i still feel confused by them- i gotta revisit so they can land more completely.
August 9, 2020
There were definitely some things that I felt were a little unfinished for me for a couple of the characters, but this play definitely felt like one I’d want to be a part of someday. It feels like it’d be that rare combination of really fun to be in and really meaningful to perform.
June 8, 2017
Some great parts, but overall unremarkable in the context of Young Jean Lee's other work
August 28, 2018
alright well I cried a lot reading that
September 12, 2018
I loved the journey-- still contemplating some of the messages.
October 25, 2019
I feel like this would have hit me harder seeing it performed live, rather than reading it. A lot of funny moments that hit for me, but the end kind of let me like “Huh?”
September 11, 2022
Phenomenal play!! Loved it to bits
October 8, 2022
i wish i was in an MRI machine when i read this play
November 16, 2022
just read this for my gender and performance class. very interesting play, but i definitely did not fully understand it.
June 16, 2023
everyone involved in this should be embarrassed of themselves
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews