THE HANGOVER REPORT – THE INHERITANCE, Matthew Lopez’s profoundly moving two-part saga depicting post-AIDS crisis gay life, arrives on Broadway

Samuel H. Levine, Kyle Soller, and Andrew Burnap in Matthew Lopez's "The Inheritance" at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Photo by Marc Brenner.

Samuel H. Levine, Kyle Soller, and Andrew Burnap in Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance” at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Photo by Marc Brenner.

This week, The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The play is the latest in this season’s healthy string of new plays to open on the Great White Way. The two-part play arrives in New York on a wave of hype fairly uncommon for straight plays, after having received raves, multiple awards, strong word of mouth, and an extended run in London. The play is a modern stage adaptation E.M. Forester’s classic novel Howard’s End, which Mr. Lopez uses as the outline to paint – in obsessive detail – an ambitiously comprehensive picture of what it means to be a gay man today, particularly a gay man in post-AIDS crisis New York.

In many ways, The Inheritance is a bit of an anomaly. Until now, Mr. Lopez was perhaps best known for penning two relatively slight, albeit well-written and intriguing plays – the amusing, sit-comish drag comedy The Legend of Georgia McBride and the disorienting Civil War drama The Whipping Boy, both of which enjoyed limited, respectfully-reviewed Off-Broadway runs. Given this output, I think few would have predicted that such a sprawling, highly visible epic as The Inheritance would be in Mr. Lopez’s trajectory. It’s also surprising that a major New York-centric play would originate from across the pond and not on home soil (the same could be said of the anticipated upcoming Broadway transfer of The Lehman Trilogy, another play with a lot of meat on its bones)?

Comparisons to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America are inevitable, and many have already heralded The Inheritance as that masterpiece’s heir apparent. Both works are lengthy, two-part plays that chronicle the state of affairs of gay life. But whereas Angels in America teems with intellectual rigor and frequent fantastical flights of fancy, Mr. Lopez’s work is first and foremost a ripping good yarn, more traditionally-written and less politically-minded than Mr. Kushner’s work. The Inheritance actually has more in common with the Royal Shakespeare’s legendary day-long stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, in that character and plot development are placed at a premium. That’s not to say that The Inheritance isn’t profound; it is in its own way, particularly in its portrayal of a gay community that has somewhat lost its way and its sense of being (there was not a dry eye in the house at the conclusion of Part 1). However, with a plot as tangled, eventful, and overly-populated as this one, it’s hard to get away from clichéd caricatures, although the principal characters are gorgeously written – they’re nuanced, rich, and complex beings.

The great director Stephen Daldry understands the play well, opting for an exuberant, daringly spare staging (the production is essentially performed on an elegant, blank slate of a stage) that extenuates the play’s narrative drive. The risk pays off handsomely, and the result is pure storytelling as thrilling theater (the six-plus hours surprisingly flew by). Mr. Daldry’s staging also gives the show a  powerful visual conceit of its characters writing their own histories on a blank page with their blood, sweat, and tears. On the whole, the cast is top notch, which includes a handful of outstanding holdovers from the London production (notably Samuel H. Levine, Kyle Soller, and Andrew Burnap, who each shape compelling, detailed portrayals). But at the end of the day, The Inheritance strives to be an ensemble piece, and the community of actors — which also includes a solid John Benjamin Hickey and a heartbreaking late appearance by the great Lois Smith — that congregates and collectively tells Mr. Lopez’s tale on the Barrymore stage are movingly on the same page, both literally and figuratively.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

THE INHERITANCE
Broadway, Play
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
6 hours, 15 minutes (across two parts, including intermissions)
Through March 1

Categories: Broadway, Theater

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