Chinese Republicans (2026) – Summary and Review

Four Woman, Four Lives, One Shared Background, And Many Uneasy Alliances.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on Hours Updated on
© Chinese Republicans / Roundabout Theatre Company

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Featured Image: © Chinese Republicans / Roundabout Theatre Company

Summary

Phyllis, Ellen, Iris, and Katie are potentially the only people with a Chinese background, maybe Asian background period, at Friedman Wallace, an investment bank in New York City. Because of this, an affinity group was made so they can support each other. However, ambition, complicated personal and interpersonal relationships, make it so that while certainly skin folk, they may not be kinfolk by the time the play is over.

Details

  • Duration: 1 Hour(s) 35 Minutes
  • Performance Being Reviewed: February 12, 2026
  • First Performance At This Venue: February 5. 2026
  • Opening Night Performance: February 26, 2026
  • Last Performance At This Venue: April 5, 2026
  • Venue URL: https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/2025-2026-season/chinese-republicans
  • Tickets Starting At: $49.00
  • Director(s): Chay Yew
  • Writer(s): Alex Lin
  • Theatre Name: Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (Laura Pels Theatre & Black Box Theatre)
  • Address of Theater: 111 West 46th Street, New York, NY
  • Genre(s): Play, Comedy, Drama

Characters and Cast

Phyllis (Jodi Long)

Phyllis was the one hired to work in Friedman Wallace, and while she was successful, sometimes a bit brutal, she had it all. The marriage, a kid, a career, and at one time, she flourished. She wanted the same for Ellen, maybe an easier time since she could bestow advice, but generational differences complicated that.

Ellen (Jennifer Ikeda)

While the way to success wasn’t paved for Ellen, dirt roads, creeks, rocky hills, or mountains couldn’t slow down her ambition. With coming from a poor immigrant family, one in which she was relied on, until her parents’ death, to act as a translator, Ellen understood the importance of money, how you speak, and most importantly, how you speak to people in authority.

A lot of her ways as a manager and mentor were molded by Phyllis, but they differ in key ways, which are shown by how Ellen speaks to Katie, compared to how Phyllis still speaks to Ellen.

Iris (Jully Lee)

Iris is the only person in the group who is Chinese by birth, upbringing, culture, and tongue. This often makes her feel like she could and should be seen by the group and their employer as more of an asset. Yet, it seems to hinder her position more than anything.

Katie (Anna Zavelson)

24-year-old Katie is Ellen’s mentee, for whom she has big plans. It isn’t 100% clear if Katie just wants to make Ellen happy or if she is in alignment with said plans, but how excited Ellen is for her becomes infectious to the point that Katie gets lost in Ellen’s dreams for her.

Review

Highlight(s)

The Challenge Of Being The Model Minority [83/100]

The term “Model Minority” may not be used as much as it once was, but throughout Chinese Republicans, you can gain a sense of why it was once in vogue. The idea of coming from a poor background, pulling up your bootstraps, working hard, keeping your head down, and accepting the ceiling, not trying to break it, is ideal for the ruling class. And in many ways, you see from Phyllis to Katie, how it is passed down to be one of the good ones, an exception, and assimilate over integrate.

Phyllis shows this by having Ellen keep her Asian sounding last name, but anglicize her first name. Telling her to remove a bracelet that screams “OTHER!” You see through Ellen and Phyllis’ association with Iris, she is accepted due to also having a Chinese background, in fact, being the only one of the four born and raised in China, yet also being kept at arm’s length. Her accent, how she speaks English, even how she speaks Mandarin, isn’t clean, it isn’t pressed, and thus isn’t seen as right (or White).

Yet, it is assumed, by leaving who you are, what makes you different, at the door, sacrificing as we see Ellen has done, you will be praised, and seen as one of the good ones. That you can make a blueprint for those who follow. But, the road you think you are paving isn’t the way to success, but actually the highway to hell.

What It Means To Be Chinese [84/100]

Phyllis and Katie are mixed. Phyllis is half Filipino, and Katie is half Irish. Again, Iris is the only one who is Chinese from China, can name provinces, speak of lived culture, and knows 4 dialects. This creates tension, especially as positions come up that can take place in China and hold massive leverage, especially for an investment bank.

It reminds you that, not only are Asian people not a monolith, but even those who share a cultural or even motherland aren’t a monolith. Phyllis, despite being bi-racial, is quick to judge Katie for being the same, since Katie’s dad is White. Iris, with an actual history in China, is offended when someone like Katie, or Katie’s White friend, can be rewarded for learning her language and culture, including major promotions and pay, while she is essentially punished.

This pushes the need to draw lines, which can seem like a purity test at times, and shows the inner challenge of trying to raise up, build community, with people who look like you, while recognizing that sharing an initial origin doesn’t mean you are kin. It may mean shared language and cultural nuances, but those can break down with ease. Be it Iris speaking Mandarin while Ellen grew up with Cantonese, Katie coming from wealth, and everyone else from poor or working-class families, or even Phyllis’ belief in marriage and having kids, while Ellen preferred her life solo.

When Mentorship Becomes Maternal [87/100]

Generally speaking, if any workplace says we’re like family, it often means the toxic aspects of what family can offer. Familiarity that is rewarded if like-minded with those in charge, sacrifice that often doesn’t lead to anything monetary, and a sense that you aren’t going anywhere, so you’ll accept how you are treated. In some ways, you can see that in the dynamic Ellen, Iris, Phyllis, and Katie share. They insult each other, Ellen says some of the cruelest things imaginable, but they still come back to the table.

But what complicates things, and leads to sometimes beautiful but complex moments, is how mentorship plays a role between Phyllis and Ellen, alongside Ellen and Katie. Phyllis was part of Ellen’s hiring process, and with Phyllis one of the few, if not only, Asian women in her position when Ellen was hired, there is clearly a hatred of being the first, and the false sense of accomplishment that brings. Yet, Phyllis also did not want to be the only one.

This makes their relationship, like Katie’s with Ellen, feel like that of a mother and daughter. There are nasty fights, but, as much as Phyllis may damn some of Ellen’s decisions, more so her personal than career decisions, Katie cannot say one disparaging word about Phyllis in Ellen’s presence. It’s confusing on the surface, but as you listen to each person and how they see the other, or the sometimes unspoken hurt they are compensating for, you get it.

Katie isn’t close to her mom, so Ellen saying she sees her, looks out for her, it can feel healing. Ellen grew up poor, her parents depending on her, so Phyllis, being strong, no-nonsense, self-sufficient, and financially sound, is the ideal. She isn’t just a role model, but the person Ellen would want as a mother, at certain times in her life.

It is all very messy, but almost as soon as something doesn’t make sense, you are flushed with the realization of each one missing something, and the woman in front of them wanting, or being willing, to fill it. But their personal flaws dismantle the fantasy that the other wants so badly to be real.

Overall

Our Rating (84/100): Positive (See Live)

Chinese Republicans is layered with dynamics that somehow are complicated in the moment, but all so clear as soon as the actors on stage take a moment to breathe. Sometimes it is because you see parts of your own culture, and how you communicate when just with your own, vs. outsiders. Other times, it is due to understanding how office politics, corporate America, and that culture works.

But, no matter what is said or done, between the four women, what you get isn’t something trying to use the word “Republican” for the sake of getting a rise out of its audience, but a reminder of its former pillars dealing with community, family, building yourself up, and how that resonated with people.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been writing reviews since 2010, with a focus on dramas and comedies.