Photos: First Look at Jodi Long's AMERICAN JADE at Bucks County Playhouse

Bucks County Playhouse's 83rd Season opened May 21 with the new play "American Jade." Written by and starring Emmy-Award-winning actress Jodi Long, the show runs through June 11. Based on her award-winning documentary, "Long Story Short," Jodi leads audiences on a vaudeville journey into the past as she recalls the show business careers of her and her trail-blazing parents.

Check out photos below!

At age seven, Long took her first steps on the Broadway stage in Sidney Lumet's production of "Nowhere to Go But Up" - entering a professional world that ran through her family's DNA. Her Vaudevillian parents had long trod the boards - in fact, as part of a popular song and dance act, they even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in the 1950s. By the time Long took to Broadway again as Madame Liang in the Broadway 2002 revival of Rodger and Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song," she completed a circle started by her father - Larry Leung, who starred in the original Broadway production of the same musical 40 years earlier. And she continued to trailblaze her own path - breaking barriers by becoming the first actor of Asian descent to win a competitive acting Emmy in 2021 for her role in in Netflix's "Dash and Lily." Showbiz was Jodi Long's destiny.

"American Jade" not only connects the dots between an actor daughter and her Vaudevillian parents, but chronicles their fascinating lives, onstage and off, weaving their family history into a story that reflects both the joys and hardships of the immigrant experience in the U.S. in the last century.

With live onstage music by Yukio Tsuji (house composer/musician at LaMama ETC for more than 25 years), plus lively doses of humor, song and dance, Long leads a vaudeville journey into the past, discovering the imprints that family leaves on us all. Written by Long and directed by Eric Rosen (Public Theater's "Venice"), "American Jade" marks the launch of the 10-year anniversary of the reopening of the Playhouse after a lavish renovation in 2012.

Tickets to "American Jade" start at $65. Special rates for groups of 10 or more. Season ticket packages are still available. For complete details, and to purchase tickets, please visit buckscountyplayhouse.org or call 215-862-2121.

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