| The Inheritance | |
|---|---|
 Cover to the ebook script, based on the original poster for the Young Vic production | |
| Written by | Matthew López |
| Based on | Inspired byHowards End byE. M. Forster |
| Directed by | Stephen Daldry |
| Date premiered | March 28, 2018 (2018-03-28) |
| Place premiered | Young Vic,London |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Early AIDS Crisis,generational trauma,queer culture |
| Setting | |
The Inheritance is a play byMatthew López, inspired by the 1910 novelHowards End byE. M. Forster. The play premiered in London at theYoung Vic in March 2018, before transferring toBroadway in November 2019.
The play was commissioned byHartford Stage inHartford, Connecticut.[1] The play was produced in London at theYoung Vic Theatre under the direction ofStephen Daldry in March 2018. The play was staged in two parts of over three hours each, intended to be viewed sequentially and reimagines E. M. Forster'sHowards End as "a lovingly wry portrait of New York’s gay community",[2] "with gay men from different generations standing in for Forster’s straight people from different classes".[2] Lopez found parallels between his own life and Forster'scloseted existence before thepartial-decriminalisation of homosexuality, tellingThe New Yorker: "We’re so far apart, and yet when I read his diaries—that’sme. That’s me, a hundred years ago, as a closeted white man in England". Lopez has described that the greatest theatrical influence, despite comparisons withTony Kushner'sAngels in America[2] as beingGatz,Elevator Repair Service's 2-part, 8-hour adaptation ofThe Great Gatsby, inspiring his use of "self-narration".[2]
The Inheritance examines love between gay men in contemporary New York a generation after theEarly AIDS Crisis.[3] It asks what the current generation owes to its forebears[4] with Rebecca Read writing inThe New Yorker that lead character Eric Glass, "as the grandson of Holocaust survivors, has a personal connection to generational catastrophe, and is therefore better primed to comprehend the history of the gay community’s devastation".[2]
The production transferred to theNoël Coward Theatre in London'sWest End on 21 September 2018 and was produced byTom Kirdahy,Sonia Friedman, and Hunter Arnold.[5]
The Inheritance wonBest Play at the LondonEvening Standard Theatre Award 2018.[6]The Inheritance also won Best New Play, Best Director for Stephen Daldry and Best Actor forKyle Soller at both the 2019Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and the 2019Laurence Olivier Awards, also winning an Olivier for Best Lighting for Jon Clark.[7]
The play premiered onBroadway at theEthel Barrymore Theatre on 27 September 2019 in previews, with the official opening on 17 November.[8] The production featuresLois Smith as Margaret, with Kyle Soller and John Benjamin Hickey, among others, reprising their roles from the London production.[9]
In December 2019, it was announced thatTony Goldwyn would replace Hickey for a four-month stint beginning in January 2020, while Hickey was set to direct a revival ofPlaza Suite.[10] However, in February 2020, it was announced thatThe Inheritance would close on March 15, after 46 previews and 138 regular performances.[11][12] On March 12, the final four performances were cancelled when all Broadway theatres closed to combat theCOVID-19 pandemic.[13]
A German language production ofThe Inheritance titledDas Vermächtnis, directed byPhilip Stölzl, premiered atMunich's Residenztheater on January 30, 2022.[14][15] The production was invited to theBerliner Theatertreffen as one of ten "noteworthy" productions of 2022.[16]Das Vermächtnis also premiered inHanover on 22 April 2022, as well as at theTheater Münster on 3 December 2022 and most recently at theE.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater inBamberg on 6 October 2023.[17] Part one of the Bamberg production was invited to theBayerische Theatertage in 2024.[18]
A West Coast premiere production directed by Mike Donahue opened atGeffen Playhouse on September 13, 2022, and had an extended run until November 27, 2022.[19] The play was cited as "better in Los Angeles than on Broadway"[20] byLos Angeles Times theater criticCharles McNulty. An audio adaptation[21] was later released byAudible Theater in March 2023.
ARV, the Swedish version ofThe Inheritance had its premiere on 5 November 2022, atThe Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. It was chosen to be part of the theatre biennale 2023 and won theNöjesguiden award for best performance 2023 and was nominated for aQX-award for best production 2023. It ran again in 2024/2025 in a partly new version at The Royal Dramatic Theatre.ARV was directed byCarl Johan Karlson.
Brazilian Portuguese language production ofThe Inheritance, calledA Herança, premiered at Teatro Vivo, São Paulo, on March 9, 2023, and ran until April 30, 2023. The play was translated into Portuguese by Zé Henrique de Paula, who also directs and produces it. Bruno Fagundes, the other local producer, performs the role of Eric Glass in the Brazilian version. Due to its success, a new season, this time placed at Teatro Raul Cortez, São Paulo, premiered on June 1, 2023, and ran until July 30, 2023.
A Danish language production ofThe Inheritance namedArven premiered atthe Royal Danish Playhouse March 25, 2023 and ran until May 13 the same year. The production was staged by Thomas Bendixen.[22] The production won the 2023Reumert Award for Best Performance.[23] The production opened again August 24, 2024 as part ofthe Royal Danish Theatre's 2024/2025 season[24] and is set to open yet again August 22, 2026 as part of its 2026/2027 season.[25]
In April 2023 Canadian Stage announced that, as part of its 23/24 season, it would stage a production in Toronto.The production was directed by Brendan Healy, Canadian Stage's artistic director, and ran at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Front Street East, Toronto in March and April 2024.
In January 2024,The Inheritance had its Australian premiere at Melbourne'sfortyfivedownstairs in a production directed by Kitan Petkovski.
A Catalan language production entitledL'herència was staged atTeatre Lliure in Barcelona in 2025, directed by Josep Maria Mestres.[26]
| Role | Off-West End | West End | Broadway | Los Angeles | Toronto Premiere | Australian Premiere |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2024 | 2024 | ||
| Eric Glass | Kyle Soller | Adam Kantor | Qasim Khan | Charles Purcell | ||
| Toby Darling | Andrew Burnap | Juan Castano | Antoine Yared | Tomáš Kantor | ||
| Adam / Leo | Samuel H. Levine | Nicholas L. Ashe | Stephen Jackman-Torkoff | Karl Richmond | ||
| Walter / Morgan | Paul Hilton | Bill Brochtrup | Daniel MacIvor | Dion Mills | ||
| Henry Wilcox | John Benjamin Hickey | Tuc Watkins | Jim Mezon | Hunter Perske | ||
| Jasper | Hugo Bolton | Kyle Harris | Kasey Mahaffy | Salvatore Antonio | Joss McClelland | |
| Toby's Agent | Robert Boulter | Jonathan Burke | Eddie Lopez | Gregory Prest | Christian Taylor | |
| Young Henry | Hubert Burton | Carson McCalley | August Gray Gall | Ben Page | Alexander Thew | |
| Tristan | Syrus Lowe | Jordan Barbour | Jay Donnell | Hollywood Jade | Javon King | |
| Jason 1 | Michael Marcus | Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr. | Israel Erron Ford | Aldrin Bundoc | Iopu Auva’a | |
| Young Walter | Luke Thallon | Jack Riddiford | Dylan Frederick | Miguel Pinzon | Landon Nesbitt | Rupert Bevan |
| Jason 2 | Michael Walters | Arturo Luís Soria | Avi Roque | Breton Lalama | Juan Gomez | |
| Margaret | Vanessa Redgrave | Lois Smith | Tantoo Cardinal | Louise Pitre | Jillian Murray | |
The reviewer forThe Daily Telegraph called the play “perhaps the most important American play of this century.”[27]
TheVariety reviewer wrote the play is a "vast, imperfect and unwieldy masterpiece that unpicks queer politics andneoliberal economics anew. In addressing the debt gay men owe to their forebears, it dares to ask whether the past hasn’t also sold the present up short."[3]
Michael Billington,The Guardian reviewer, wrote: "While Lopez’s play has a literary framework, it teems with life and incident...Lopez is also unafraid to periodically stop the plot and clear the stage for an impassioned debate: one of the most intense is about the status of gay culture which, having fought so long against oppression, now finds itself in danger of being co-opted."[28] In a later article, Billington also praised Paul Hilton's performance in the Young Vic Theatre production in a list byThe Guardian writers of the 50 greatest theatre shows since 2000, in whichThe Inheritance placed 15th.[29]
The show received mostly mixed reviews on Broadway. As Ben Brantley wrote inThe New York Times: "Its breadth doesn't always translate into depth." He praised the acting of many in the large cast and noted the continued experiential relevance of the AIDS crises, stating "That effort to conjure a nightmare era in danger of being forgotten by many young people today captures what’s best in 'The Inheritance'.”[30]
Writing inThe New Yorker, Rebecca Mead drew comparisons toAngels in America, the two-part epic play byTony Kushner, also examining theEarly AIDS Crisis in New York, describingThe Inheritance as "less intellectually demanding" and "strik[ing] an upper-middlebrow tone" and also comparing the play withHanya Yanagihara's 2015 "gay-trauma" novelA Little Life.[2]
Terrence McNally, author of the 1994 playLove! Valour! Compassion!, which addressed the AIDS Crisis contemporarily, said that "as an 80-year-old survivor, observer, and participant of the many years covered in the play" he had never had such a strong response,[2] referring to the experience of watching a play about the Early AIDS Crisis amid an audience of gay men of both the survivors' generation and the subsequent generation, that of the protagonists.[2]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Evening Standard Theatre Award[31][6] | Best Play | Matthew Lopez | Won |
| Best Actor | Kyle Soller | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Stephen Daldry | Nominated | ||
| Critics' Circle Theatre Award[7] | Best New Play | Matthew Lopez | Won | |
| Best Actor | Kyle Soller | Won | ||
| Best Director | Stephen Daldry | Won | ||
| 2019 | Laurence Olivier Award[32] | Best New Play | Won | |
| Best Actor | Kyle Soller | Won | ||
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Vanessa Redgrave | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Stephen Daldry | Won | ||
| Best Set Design | Bob Crowley | Nominated | ||
| Best Lighting Design | Jon Clark | Won | ||
| Best Sound Design | Paul Arditti and Christopher Reid | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Achievement in Music | Paul Englishby | Nominated | ||
| South Bank Sky Arts Award[33] | Theatre | Won | ||