Eliana Willis

Ben Brantley’s review of “The Inheritance” drew more than 100 comments, signaling the strong reactions engendered by the show. (One reader called the play “pompous, elitist, superficial” and “magnetically entertaining” all at once.) Did the show’s impact vary by generation? We put that question to readers of our theater newsletter. An edited selection of their responses follows. (You can subscribe to the free newsletter here).I’ve never felt so personally connected to a play as I did watching this, particularly Part One. I saw myself and many friends in the characters, and as a 57-year-old who tested positive for H.I.V. at 27, I found the focus on the epidemic cathartic and evocative. It was also nice to feel so “seen,” since gay men, particularly white gay men, are sometimes vilified within the L.G.B.T.Q. community these days, accused of not being woke enough fast enough. DENNIS EDWARDS, MiamiWhile beautifully staged and acted, there is not enough there for six hours of theater, at least for an American audience. So much of the material has been done before — “Torch Song Trilogy,” “The Normal Heart,” “The Boys in the Band”— that the first play almost appears to be a revival. Part Two brings us to the present day, but does not and cannot bring us to conclusion. MARY LOU WINNICK, Longboat Key, Fla.As a gay millennial, I’ve never felt a piece of theater heal something in me and break me at the same time the way “The Inheritance” did. The storytelling reaffirms that less is more in an age when more is monotony. RYAN HAMMAN, ChicagoI’m a 31-year-old gay man, and I was interested in seeing the production based on word of mouth and the reviews from the West End. In the end, I had mixed feelings. I enjoyed the play when it was telling the story of Eric and Toby’s crumbling relationship, and was less interested in didactic scenes where the play felt to be in conversation with itself about (to me) well-known history and complaints about “young gays these days.” The end of Part One gave me hope, but Part Two felt to be more of the same: a mostly white, mostly handsome, 30-something perspective. While it was moving to be in a theater with many gay men a bit older than myself who seemed incredibly touched by the play, it didn’t work on me in the same way. KARL HINZE, New YorkI am a 47-year-old woman from Texas. I was captivated from start to finish, even given the length. As someone who was young and not part of the community impacted by AIDS, I didn’t fully grasp the breadth of the suffering. As a mother, I was especially moved by Margaret’s telling of how she came to work at Walter’s home. Most parents can relate to saying things that they later regret and worry about the damage done by their words and actions. AMY HUFFORD, Austin, Tex.Seeing “The Inheritance,” I felt a renewed imperative to open myself to love and to give my love to others, as tricky and scary and messy as that can be. It was no abstract, hypothetical power that the play exercised, either. It has had a direct effect on actions that I’ve taken since I saw it. I can’t say that for the vast majority of theater I have seen. JOSEPH MEDEIROS, New YorkI’m part of the generation of gay men who survived the worst of the AIDS crisis, and frankly I was unprepared for the depth of feeling the play would generate in me. The end of Part One took my breath away, and, as the lights came up, a gentleman two rows ahead of mine turned back to the young men behind him and introduced himself, saying he just felt like he should “say hello, because of the play.” I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that in a Broadway, or any, theater. I won’t forget that moment. HARRY ALTHAUS, New YorkI found it especially poignant to watch while living through our present-day predicament, a society that continues to carve us up based on identity, age, race, preference. Instead, “The Inheritance” shows us how connected we all truly are — and urges us never to lose sight of that connectedness, because in the end we are all just humans looking for a purpose, something to fight for, someone to love. RACHEL DiSALVO, New York More

Theatergoers of different generations have had passionate responses to “The Inheritance,” Matthew Lopez’s two-part play about gay culture and the legacy of AIDS. The show was celebrated in its original runs in London, but the reception has been more divided on Broadway, both among professional critics and regular attendees. While many have found the show inordinately moving, others have criticized a lack of diversity in the central cast and narrow representation of contemporary gay life. We asked Lopez to write about what inspired the play and to reflect on why some audience members don’t like what they see.In March 2018, my play “The Inheritance” began performances in London. Until its first preview, it was anyone’s guess how it would be received. A reimagining of E.M. Forster’s “Howards End” — using three generations of gay New Yorkers to explore class, community and the legacy of H.I.V. — hardly bears the makings of an obvious hit. And yet audiences, then critics, embraced the play.Since then, over 200,000 ticket-buyers have seen the play in its three productions, two in London and now on Broadway. Almost every one of those people, whether belonging to or allied with the L.G.B.T.Q. community, has a story to share relating to its themes. I have heard from many of them — people who, after seeing the play, have healed broken relationships with their queer children, have decided to save their lives by seeking help for addiction, have finally put away their grief over those they lost during the epidemic.My journey to writing it began when I was 15 years old, watching the Merchant Ivory film adaptation of “Howards End.” Somehow a gay Puerto Rican kid from the Florida panhandle was able to see some part of his experience reflected back in the story of the Schlegel sisters. He could identify with scenes of Londoners making sense of life at the turn of the last century, and even find a version of his abuela in the character of Ruth Wilcox.I fell madly in love with Forster that day. We are an unlikely couple. But, besides my marriage, it has been the happiest union of my life. At least Forster doesn’t make me go buy eggs at 7 in the morning.In writing “The Inheritance,” I wanted to take my favorite novel and retell it in a way that its closeted author never felt free to do in his lifetime. I wanted to write a play that was true to my experience, my philosophy, my heart as a gay man who has enjoyed opportunities that were denied Forster. It was my attempt to explain myself to the world as a gay man of my particular generation.I wasn’t attempting to create a generationally defining work of theater that spoke for the entire queer experience. I think that if I had started with that intention, I never would have finished. There are some who feel the play should have done just that, and who fault me for not painting on a broader canvas.Those responses led me to wonder: What do we expect from art, particularly when it is made by members of our own community? And, conversely, what are the responsibilities of artists to the communities to which they belong?Art can be expected to hold a mirror up to society, but it cannot be expected to hold a mirror up to every individual who is engaging with it. Even with its long running time, there is a lot “The Inheritance” does not and cannot cover.No one piece of writing about our complex, sprawling community will ever tell the entire story, and I believe that is a good thing: It creates an unquenchable thirst for more and more narratives — a thirst that has been evident in audiences for “The Inheritance” and a thirst that the theater, television and film industries have been too slow to satisfy.“The Inheritance” was not my attempt at a grand summation of the past quarter century of queer history. What I was attempting was an examination of class, economic inequality, and poverty within the gay community — issues I have rarely seen depicted in theater. I have painted on a broad canvas. It is simply not the canvas others might have chosen.I wanted to write about addiction and alcoholism — a disease I have struggled with, and an epidemic that plagues our community just as perniciously as H.I.V./AIDS did 30 years ago. I also wanted to write about sex: how it can be used as a vehicle for pleasure and intimacy, but how it is also used as a tool to cauterize pain.Such examinations run counter to our current desire for affirmative representation. But avoidance of uncomfortable truths is not the role of the artist. Healing is impossible if you don’t understand the cause of the injury.And while I examine race in “The Inheritance,” it is not one of its central themes. This is a decision for which I have been criticized, but it is a decision that I made consciously as a person of color. It is a consideration that is not asked of white writers, but it is one that writers of color must face with every project we begin.Responsibility to community is the first question we must answer for ourselves. I believe that in writing honestly about my experience as a gay man, I have also contributed one more example of what it means to be a Puerto Rican man.I have been asked by some why I didn’t write “The Inheritance” from a Latinx perspective. It is a question that reveals to me just how far we have to go in understanding the true nature of diversity of expression. I answer: Can you not see how, by virtue of the fact that I have written it, “The Inheritance” is a reflection of a Latinx perspective?It reminds me of Sonia Sotomayor’s formulation that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion” than her white colleagues. Justice Sotomayor is not given only the Puerto Rican cases to decide; she helps decide all the cases. And her decisions are based just as much on her knowledge of the law as it is by her experiences as a Puerto Rican woman.The same is true for “The Inheritance” and me. It is because I am Puerto Rican that “The Inheritance” is the play it is, not in spite of it. Eric Glass, my central character, may be a white man, but he is a white man who was created by a Puerto Rican one. That has fundamentally informed his journey through the play.Others have questioned why there isn’t more representation of the younger generation in the play. It is true that most of the characters are near or close to my age. That is partly due to the function of adaptation — the Schlegel sisters (who became the mid-30s boyfriends Eric Glass and Toby Darling) are, after all, the central characters in “Howards End.” It is also a function of my own perspective. I wrote mostly about people in their 30s because that’s the experience I was living as I wrote the play.There is a reason, however, that I chose to end the play in the future, focusing on the creative output of the youngest and most marginalized character in the play. I end “The Inheritance” with the acknowledgment that the future has yet to be written — and when it is, it will be written by the youngest among us.My hope is that, while not presuming to speak for the younger generation, I have spoken to it, and that its members might come to the play in an attempt to understand the life of someone who came before them, and who, for better or worse, through his words and actions helped shape the world that they will inherit. More

Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.Previews & Openings‘CHEKHOV/TOLSTOY: LOVE STORIES’ at Theater Row (in previews; opens on Feb. 10). Will two great Russians’ tales taste great together? The Mint Theater continues its relationship with the English playwright Miles Malleson, staging two of his adaptations: Chekhov’s story of an artist and Tolstoy’s tale of a peasant couple. Jonathan Bank and Jane Shaw direct a cast that includes Vinie Burrows. 212-239-6200, minttheater.org‘DANA H.’ at the Vineyard Theater (previews start on Feb. 11; opens on Feb. 25). Lucas Hnath often writes about famous figures — Isaac Newton, Walt Disney, Hillary Clinton. His subject this time: his own mother, Dana Higginbotham. Hnath adapted the play from interviews that were conducted with her about the time she was held captive by a psychiatric patient she ministered to as a chaplain at a mental institution. The Obie winner Diedre O’Connell brings the harrowing true story to life.212-353-0303, vineyardtheatre.org‘DARLING GRENADINE’ at the Roundabout Underground (in previews; opens on Feb. 10). A cocktail of a musical, Daniel Zaitchik’s romantic comedy is about a guy, a girl, a friend, a dog and the ravages of addiction. Adam Kantor plays Harry, a composer, with Emily Walton as the chorus girl he loves and Jay Armstrong Johnson as a loyal friend. Michael Berresse directs. 212-719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org‘HAMLET’ at St. Ann’s Warehouse (in previews; opens on Feb. 10). Hamlet’s inky cloak? Ruth Negga is wearing it now. The Ethiopian-Irish actress plays the prince in Yaël Farber’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. “It nearly killed me,” she told The New York Times, describing an earlier run. Guess there’s nothing like a Dane. With Aoife Duffin as Ophelia. 718-254-8779, stannswarehouse.org‘THE HEADLANDS’ at the Claire Tow Theater (previews start on Feb. 8; opens on Feb. 24). A writer of puzzle-box plays, Christopher Chen (“Caught,” “Passage”) unspools a new mystery for LCT3. In this detective drama, directed by Knud Adams, a grown son, Henry (Aaron Yoo), pieces together memories to try to solve the murder of his father (Johnny Wu). Laura Kai Chen portrays Henry’s mother in the past; Mia Katigbak, his present one. 212-239-6200, lct3.org[embedded content]‘HOT WING KING’ at the Pershing Square Signature Center (previews start on Feb. 11; opens on March 1). A saucy comedy, Katori Hall’s new play, part of her Signature Theater residency, unfolds during the Hot Wang Festival in Memphis, with family and romantic conflict cooking alongside the chicken. Steve H. Broadnax III directs a cast that includes Toussaint Jeanlouis and Korey Jackson. 212-244-7529, signaturetheatre.org[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]‘THE PERPLEXED’ at New York City Center Stage I (previews start on Feb. 11; opens on March 3). Before Richard Greenberg goes to the ballgame with the Broadway revival of “Take Me Out,” he premieres this uptown comedy about two families, alike in indignity, and the wedding that unites them. For Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow directs a cast that includes Margaret Colin and Frank Wood. 212-581-1212, nycitycenter.org‘72 MILES TO GO …’ at the Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater (previews start on Feb. 13; opens on March 10). When Anita is deported — from Tucson, Ariz., to Nogales, Mexico — family life goes on with and without her. Hilary Bettis’s border-crossing, decade-spanning drama stars Maria Elena Ramirez as Anita, with Triney Sandoval, Tyler Alvarez, Jacqueline Guillén and Bobby Moreno. Jo Bonney directs. 212-719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org‘SIX’ at the Brooks Atkinson Theater (previews start on Feb. 13; opens on March 12). In a time before marriage counseling and no-fault divorce, the much-married Henry VIII racked up six wives. And in this rock musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, they come together to debate who had it worst. “‘Six’ delivers pure entertainment throughout its headlong 80 minutes,” Jesse Green wrote of the Chicago production last summer. 877-250-2929, sixonbroadway.com‘THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN’ at Abrons Arts Center (previews start on Feb. 8; opens on Feb. 26). Can the 1960 Meredith Willson musical about a Titanic survivor float? The book writer Dick Scanlan’s update for the Transport Group pushes the show toward the actual history of the lifeboat queen Margaret Tobin Brown, played here by Beth Malone. Kathleen Marshall directs and choreographs the show’s Off Broadway premiere. 866-811-4111, transportgroup.orgLast Chance‘AMERICAN UTOPIA’ at the Hudson Theater (closes on Feb. 16). A knockout concert and an occasional meditation on civics and community, David Byrne’s musical theater experience, choreographed by Annie-B Parson, drops its chain curtain for the final time. The erstwhile Talking Head frontman’s show, Ben Brantley wrote, “repositions a onetime rebel as a reflective elder statesman, offering cozy cosmic wisdom.” 855-801-5876, americanutopiabroadway.com‘TIMON OF ATHENS’ at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center (closes on Feb. 9). Fashioned for this age of inequality, Simon Godwin’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s (and Thomas Middleton’s) vexed semitragedy ends its run. Starring Kathryn Hunter as a plutocrat who goes broke, the production adds in fragments from other Shakespeare plays, plus a sonnet. Jesse Green called it an “energetic and somewhat Frankensteined revival.” 866-811-4111, tfana.org More

Where would plays go if they died? I could imagine “A Streetcar Named Desire” frolicking with “Mother Courage” in the Elysian fields, while David Mamet’s recent works would most likely be getting toasty in the underworld.But what about those that weren’t good enough for heaven, but not bad enough to deserve hell? If there is a purgatory for them, that’s surely where Tom Dulack’s “Paradise Lost” will reside.The play is inspired by John Milton’s epic poem imagining a history before history, with God and his angels waging a battle for heaven and, eventually, for the souls of Adam and Eve. But unlike Milton’s work, this is neither epic nor particularly poetic.We all know how the story went: Eve couldn’t resist the forbidden fruit, Adam followed her lead, and humanity ended up destined to feel shame and die. But Milton evoked complex inner worlds for his characters. “The mind is its own place,” he wrote, “and in itself, can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.”In the Fellowship for Performing Arts production at Theater Row, Dulack’s paradise is reduced to pure plot.Banished from heaven, Lucifer (David Andrew Macdonald, with the gravitas of George C. Scott) and Beelzebub (Lou Liberatore, like a villainous Disney sidekick) scheme over how to ruin God’s plans.The delicious opening scene is made all the better when Alison Fraser’s Sin arrives, dressed as Lady Gaga on her way to prom. (Sydney Maresca did the imaginative costumes, which include a skirt made of hanging intestines for Sin.)The idea that villains have all the fun comes to life when Adam (Robbie Simpson) and Eve (Marina Shay) show up, to name creatures, talk about angels and praise creation. They play the first man and woman as wide-eyed blank canvases — childlike, but without the playfulness.They mostly share scenes with the archangel Gabriel (Mel Johnson Jr.) who reveals plot points we know by heart, making for quite a laborious experience. Scenes in Eden feel more lifeless than joyful in this production by a company dedicated to “producing theater from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience.”It’s in the especially dull moments that the eye wanders to Harry Feiner’s detailed set design, his Botticelli trees in beautiful contrast with John Narun’s rich projections. Nighttime scenes, where we watch Adam and Eve sleep, are given depth by Phil Monat’s lighting, which through its soft hues suggests divine protection.The director, Michael Parva, doesn’t stray from the flat tone of the script, giving “Paradise Lost” the feel of a school production that students were forced to attend.Paradise LostThrough March 1 at Theater Row, Manhattan; 212-239-6200, fpatheatre.com. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. More