www.broadwayworld.com: Profoundly touching and wickedly hilarious, Matthew Lopez' highly-anticipated two-part play, The Inheritance, asks how much we owe to those who lived and loved before us, and questions the role we must play for future generations. Brilliantly re-envisioning E. M. Forster's masterpiece Howards End to 21st-century New York, it follows the interlinking lives of three generations of gay men searching for a community of their own - and a place to call home. THE INHERITANCE is a life-affirming journey of tears and laughter, through conflicts and connections, heartbreak and hope. A new play, generations in the making.
4 comments:
This is a relatively short list- but it has some of the most iconic, must know about plays of this century. I wonder if the decision to write a two part play is motivated by the urge to go to broadway, because this model is somehow working commercially but there doesn't seem to be a place for this in regional theaters. Not that many people travel to regional theaters for the theater or for plays, in New York, this makes perfect sense since its a tourist attraction for theater. Something that the article points out is that the reason these shows are so incredibly long is because the stories that are told on stage are stories that must be told. It usually becomes less about the essence of the plot but more about how the nuances of the plot guide the story- and now Carson, a recent CMU grad is starring in one of these in the Inheritance.
Like Shahzad has already stated above me, a lot of these shows listed are pretty iconic in the American Theatre canon. My immediate thought for some of these is money grabbing. I am thinking specifically of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Maybe I am biased since I consider myself a huge Harry Potter fan, but I felt that this is a story that did not need to be told. It did not feel relevant to anything else in the series. Some of the other plays listed seem to be very exciting though, and seem to have stories that need to be told. I wish I could go see The Inheritance. It looks like it would be a stunning play. I feel the same about Angels is America. As Shahzad has said, I also feel like these do not get produced often outside of the Broadway realm in BOTH parts. Especially with Angels in America, it only seems to be Millennium Approaches that gets produced. I do not think I have ever seen Perestroika be produced as a stand-alone. Is there any point in doing the second part? I feel like just doing one part of any of these plays just feels like you are cheating the audience out of a very important part to a large story.
I was just recently having this conversation with someone about the odd schism that seems to be happening in the world of theatre: short plays and multi-part productions. The way I see it, theatre has always reflected the needs of society, and the growing popularity of these massive productions is vital in understanding what people want when they go to the theatre. The short 90 minute no-intermission productions are some of my favorite productions since they flow so seamlessly without the break in the story for intermission. People want to go to these productions because they want that human experience, and these smaller productions are great for that. However, there is also this need for deeply connected human stories that you can't fit into even a 3 hour production. In an era of binge-watching tv shows, there is this new need for larger stories. I cannot imagine Angels in America being squished into a two-act performance, and that is not what people want. People need these human stories told by humans in the same room as them, and this growing trend of multi-part plays is indicative of that.
Having two parts on Broadway is always such a risk. Having two shows instead of one heavily increases the cost even though you are still working the same number of hours. Also the experience for the audience can be rough. While a regional theatre could do a 2 parter and have a restaurnet in the theatre and a lounge area than sure. But to do two parts on broadway in the same day is very rough. While the list it self Is not long the shows are really big shows. The interesting this is that all the shows come off as these epic plays. Could you do a simple box set family drama that’s two parts? Would people want to see that? While I think plays can be in parts I wonder what it would be like to have a musical in two parts. Would people see it/ would it make sense?
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