Susan Granger’s review of “The Inheritance” (Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway)
Inspired by E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howard’s End,” Matthew Lopez’s ambitious elegy of ancestry, directed by Stephen Daldry, relates a nearly seven-hour saga of contemporary gay men in Manhattan, a generation after the AIDS crisis.
It begins with a literary spiritual guide (Paul Hilton) encouraging men who are struggling with writing about their professional triumphs and tangled romantic lives. But, behind these interludes of friendship, love and loss is a debt this younger generation owes to the gay rights pioneers who came before them.
“I can’t imagine what those years were like,” says social activist Eric Glass (Kyle Soller), a 33 year-old Yale grad. “I can understand what it was. But I cannot possibly feel what it was.”
Much of the drama centers on Eric and his self-destructive playwright partner Toby Darling (Andrew Burnap), who live in Eric’s spacious, rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side that belonged to his grandmother, a refugee from Nazi Germany. But now Eric’s lease is being contested.
Then there’s elderly, ailing Walter Poole (also Paul Hilton), long-time partner of real estate developer Henry Wilcox (John Benjamin Hickey); Walter’s beloved country house became a rustic sanctuary where the dying could “leave this world with the kind of dignity they had long been denied while living in it.”
Walter wants Eric to inherit the house but Henry’s sons (Jonathan Burke, Kyle Harris) intervene. Plus, there’s a laundry list of LGBTQ issues, like the loss of gay bar culture in an age of hookup apps.
As the mother whose son who died of AIDS, Margaret’s (Lois Smith) lengthy monologue near the end of the play summarizes everything with E.M. Forster’s most famous line: “Only connect.”
“New York felt like it was ground zero for the AIDS epidemic,” explains playwright Matthew Lopez. “There are so many ghosts here.”
Problem is: Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” explored this subject matter, as have many other plays and movies. So why sit through this compassionate, yet indulgent marathon? The second half quickly becomes repetitive and the sentimentality feels manipulative.
“The Inheritance” opened on 11/17/2019 and is scheduled to close on 3/20/2020.