When I heard this beast of a show was transferred from London, I knew I’d make time to see it. I also knew it’d take command of around 7 hours of my life. Part 1 and Part 2 clocked in at three hours and thirty minutes EACH. The first part I saw on a Monday night – great idea, not. I didn’t make that mistake. I saw Part 2 on a weekend a couple of months later.
The Inheritance examined relationships between gay men in the generation since the AIDS crisis of the 80’s and this new generation questions what they owe to the generation that came before and who paved the way for them.
The Inheritance was trying to be this generations’ Angels in America and while it was well-written, by Matthew Lopez, in my opinion, it just didn’t need to be 7 hours long. Three and a half hours would have sufficed.
Much of the first act is a bare stage in the present day with a large number of cast members trying to help the “writer” of the story figure out what he’s writing. A lot of that could’ve been cut.
I don’t really remember anyone’s performance besides John Benjamin Hickey’s but he was fantastic. Did The Inheritance need to be 7 hours long? No. Do I regret the time I spent watching it? Also, no.