Yes that's Gedde Watanabe and no - this isn't going to be a post blasting him for past films. From what I read down at the Rafu Shimpo - his performance alone is worth the price of admission in the new EWP play "Ixnay":
East West Players (EWP) is known for innovative, fresh and at times genre-bending plays that not only promote Asian American talent, but honest-to-goodness talent in general. So, EWP’s newest comedic play, “Ixnay,” written by Paul Kikuchi and directed by Jeff Liu, had a lot to live up to.Don't know about you, but it sure makes me want to check it out.
In fact, the script mirrors its main protagonist Raymond Kobayashi (Aaron Takahashi) who finds himself dead from a car crash and waiting at the reincarnation station to be sent back to earth. Kobayashi, a Sansei owner of a fishing store in his former life, had not quite lived up to his family’s lofty expectations.
Kobayashi embodies the “average JA,” and yet exudes an un-Asian-like fire about him that leads him to hold up the reincarnation process for everyone else by refusing to return as a Japanese American.
“Everyone else” includes a Chinese American dentist (Matthew Yang King), a Samoan American woman (Ellen D. Williams), a Filipino American youth (Dante Basco) and a Korean American grandmother (June Kyoko Lu). None of them are too happy with the specially chosen Kobayashi’s decision.
Enter the subject matter of the plot.