China: The Whole Enchilada
by Mark Brown

A hilarious new musical, China: The Whole Enchilada is three men singing, dancing and irreverently marching their way through 5,000 years of Chinese history – in less than two hours with an intermission.

One character loves China, one is convinced China is going to overthrow the world at any minute, and the third keeps getting China confused with Japan.

Songs include “Lotus Shoes,” a waltz about foot-binding; the “Khan-Khan,” the Can-Can with Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Ricardo Montalban from the Wrath of Khan; and the gospel revival song “Gate of Heavenly Peace,” about the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square.

And what show about the history of China would be complete without a lounge song from the Peking Man, a duet with Ming the Merciless and Fu Manchu, a vaudeville sketch about Yellow Peril, the Opium Wars explained through a sketch called Hu’s on First, the presentation of Chinese inventions by a very bitter Thomas Edison, a Chinese fire drill, an explanation of why French people suck, the birth of the fortune cookie, and a headlong plunge into racism, human rights and infanticide?

China: The Whole Enchilada is a fast-paced and hilarious primer on China, but beneath the jokes are many lessons about issues such as racism and bigotry.