Review: ‘M. Butterfly’ never takes flight

That silk kimono hides a scandalous secret in “M. Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang’s 1988 Tony Award-winning drama about the romance between a French diplomat and the Chinese opera singer he believed to be a woman – but who was in fact a man. In the nearly 30 years since Hwang’s play became something of a Broadway sensation – running for more than 750 performances, which was and still is remarkable for a straight play – men dressing as women have become rather more commonplace in popular culture. For that matter, discussions of the fluidity of identity, the “performative” aspects of…