The words Epic Achievement only begin to describe the Stephen Daldry production of Matthew Lopez’s six-and-a-half-hour masterpiece The Inheritance (Part 1 & Part 2), now getting its long-awaited, celebration-worthy West Coast Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse.

Like Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion!, Lopez’s magnum opus focuses on a tightly-knit group of gay male friends, and like Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, its canvas is so broad that it fills two three-hour-long halves which can be seen separately or as an afternoon-evening weekend extravaganza, the stage equivalent of an HBO miniseries that practically demands binge viewing (with time off between halves for a meal).

Inspired by EM Forster’s Howards End, The Inheritance’s cast of characters include 30something political activist Eric Glass (Adam Kantor); Toby Darling (Juan Castano), Eric’s novelist boyfriend of the past seven years; aspiring actor Adam McDowell (Bradley James Tejeda), about to star in the stage adaptation of Toby’s book; billionaire business mogul Henry Wilcox (Tuc Watkins) and his longtime companion Walter Poole (Bill Brochtrup); and the half dozen or so “Lads” who make up Eric’s tight, racially diverse circle of friends: HIV-positive physician Tristan (Jay Donnell), married couple Jason (Israel Erron Ford) and Jason (Avi Roque), and Eric’s boss Jasper (Kasey Mahaffy), with others in this tight-knit circle played by August Gray Gall, Eddie Lopez, and Miguel Pinzon.

Playwright Lopez’s central conceit is that the stories we see unfolding on stage are being made up as we go along, with Forster himself (Brochtrup’s “Morgan”) serving as our narrator/guide and the Lads piping in to offer suggestions, to comment on the action, or to instruct a character to say “what he actually said” when what we’ve first heard was what he’d like to have said had he truly spoken his mind.

It’s rather an audacious conceit, to be sure, but no more so than writing a play whose two halves add up to a six hour-twenty-five minute running time (including a couple of intermissions per half), each of its six acts ending on a decidedly dramatic note and at least one of them prompting audible sobs throughout the theater.

At the same time, it’s hard to imagine The Inheritance as anything less than a two-evening or full-day experience, its extended running time allowing not only fully-fleshed out stories (and more than a bit of naked or semi-naked flesh) but extended discussions of (among other topics) what it means to be gay in the 21st century and how the country’s political polarization led to the 2016 election upset.

The length and depth of Lopez’s gorgeously written play permits the writer to transport audiences back over a hundred years in time to when a profoundly closeted EM Forster wrote (but did not dare publish) the gay classic Maurice, imagining a happily-ever-after ending its author could only dream of in real life) and then forward in time to an epidemic that galvanized a community and decimated its ranks, the impact of which prompts two very different but equally gut-wrenching sequences, one of them speaking directly to young queer men who cannot possibly imagine seeing friend after friend after friend die the most horrific of deaths, the other to the epidemic’s now middle-aged-to-elderly survivors, the ghosts of whose fallen friends continue to haunt their lives.

Still, it’s The Inheritance’s contemporary stories that propel its compelling narrative as couples break up and new romantic alliances form, as characters either find salvation or self-destruct, as lies get told and truths get revealed, all of this leading up to a climactic scene that leaves audiences moved to tears and and champing at the bit to give The Inheritance’s cast the standing ovation of a lifetime.

Whereas previous regional productions have opted to stage The Inheritance “from the ground up,” the Geffen replicates director Stephen Daldry’s original New Vic-to-West End-to-Broadway vision, one that helped Lopez’s play win both London’s Olivier Award and New York’s Tony for Best Play, with director Mike Donahue presumably adhering to Daldry’s original blocking while allowing an all-around sensational cast to make Lopez’s characters indelibly their own.

Jamie Todd’s scenic design, based on Bob Crowley’s original, sets The Inheritance on an essentially bare stage around which cast members sit, stand, comment, and observe when not centerstage, a design which features more than a few stunning visual surprises along the way.

And though Todd’s design and the London/Broadway original would appear to be virtually the same, it’s clear from a quick comparison of production stills from those productions and the Geffen’s that Donovan’s casting choices make this West Coast Premiere its own unique entity, and far more diverse than the original. (Jason #2, a cis male in London and NYC, is now trans, and both Toby and Adam/Leo are Latino this time round.)

Performances are quite simply transcendent, beginning with Broadway musical theater star Kantor’s compelling dramatic turn as gay everyman Eric, the glue that unites not just his circle of friends but lives as disparate as those of a right-wing billionaire, a screwed-up writer, and a teenage rentboy.

 In a performance you simply can’t take your eyes off of, the hot-as-blazes Castano burns up the stage as the self-destructive Toby.

 The captivating Tejeda (who understudied Adam/Leo on Broadway and joined the cast mid-previews on a moment’s notice) creates two very different young men to unforgettable effect, one a child of privilege and the other a homeless sex worker who (cliché be damned) just happens to have a heart of gold.

L.A. stage treasure Brochtrup gives “Morgan” Forster abundant posh British charm and his gentle, loving Walter is the mentor that far too many young gay men can only wish to find, and TV favorite Watkins’s dynamic, charismatic Henry proves that even an out gay man can be as selfishly unconcerned with social justice issues as the American president he wholeheartedly supports.

Mahaffy is a supporting cast standout as both Eric’s likes-‘em-young boss and one of Henry’s ultramacho sons (think Donald Jr. or Eric), the other junior Wilcox played with equal obnoxiousness by the terrific Lopez, in addition to his diverse turns as a literary agent and a drug dealer.

Gall does engaging double duty as Henry’s younger self and the twinkiest twink this side of Twinkville, and Pinzon is a charmer as a 30ish Walter and more.

Among their multiple cameo turns, Ford and Roque make for a perfectly synched pair of Jasons, Donnell does powerhouse work as a black, HIV-positive doctor betrayed by his country, and Eric Flores comes on stage briefly as a young man whose significance in Walter’s life cannot be underestimated.

Last but not least, Tantoo Cardinal appears to stunning effect in the play’s final scene as a woman who, having made the mistake of her life during the AIDS epidemic, spends the rest of it atoning for her sins.

Sara Ryung Clement’s costumes suit each character to the proverbial T, Josh Epstein’s lighting is as gorgeous and evocative as a lighting design can be, and sound designer Veronkika Vorel and composer Paul Englishby up the emotional impact every step of the way.

Last but not least, fight director Julie Ouellette and intimacy choreographer Amanda Rose Villareal are on hand to keep actors safe in moments of stage combat and skin-to-skin contact.

Colm Summers is associate director. Olivia O’Connor is dramaturg. J. Jason Daunter is production supervisor. Marie Jahelka is production stage manager and Lucy Houlihan and Shahzad Khan are assistant stage manager.

Julian Abelskamp, D.J. Blickenstaff, John R. Colley, Delius Doherty, Jono Eiland, EPMcKnight, Jeffrey Hutchinson, and David Lott are understudies. Casting is by Phyllis Schuringa, CSA.

I haven’t stopped thinking about The Inheritance since exiting the Geffen. I went home and read every word of Lopez’s published script, the better to savor the memories of what I saw and felt. Few theatrical experiences have moved me the way Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance has. For more than six hours it held me spellbound. It touched my heart as few plays ever have or ever will.

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.
www.geffenplayhouse.com

–Steven Stanley
October 16, 2022
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Tags: EM Forster, Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles Thea, Los Angeles Theater Review, Matthew Lopez