Profoundly touching and wickedly hilarious, Matthew Lopez’s two-part play The Inheritance, asks how much we owe to those who lived and loved before us, and questions the role we must play for future generations.
Brilliantly re-envisioning E. M. Forster’s masterpiece "Howards End" to 21st-century New York, it follows the interlinking lives of three generations of gay men searching for a community of their own – and a place to call home.
This epic new play by Matthew Lopez marks the Broadway debut of a bold new voice in American theatre, directed by visionary two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry.
The Inheritance is a life-affirming journey of tears and laughter, through conflicts and connections, heartbreak and hope. A new play, generations in the making.
The first part takes a while to click in. The use of author E.M. Forster as a narrator, the ensemble chirpily finishing each others' sentences and the abundance of graphic sex-talk can grow cloying. The play finds its soul near the end of the first portion, which is a well-earned tearjerker. To reveal much of Part 2 would rob the drama of its suspense. As the story moves forward, the 15 actors embody a clown car of different characters. The most heart-wrenching are Adam, an actor Toby falls in love with, and Leo, a male escort who's a dead ringer for Adam. Both men are played by Samuel Levine, who, as Leo, gives a moving and truthful performance of someone in immense pain.
With its unself-conscious blend of narration and performance, of tell and show, as well as most of the brilliant company playing multiple roles, The Inheritance put me in mind of another legendary two-parter. Not, as some have suggested, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, but the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickelby. For it is not so much a 'gay fantasia,' as Kushner called his epic work, as it is a tale told, planted in reality yet suffused with sorrow that, almost undetected, transmutes into hope.
2018 | West End |
West End transfer of the Young Vic production West End |
2019 | Broadway |
Broadway Premiere Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Kyle Soller |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Stephen Daldry |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Paul Hilton |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Lois Smith |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | The Inheritance |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design for a Play | Paul Arditti |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Paul Hilton |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | The Inheritance |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Stephen Daldry |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | John Benjamin Hickey |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Paul Hilton |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Samuel H. Levine |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Lois Smith |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | The Inheritance |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Bob Crowley |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Stephen Daldry |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jon Clark |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score | Paul Englishby |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | John Benjamin Hickey |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Paul Hilton |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Andrew Burnap |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Lois Smith |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Matthew Lopez |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Bob Crowley |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Paul Arditti |
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