THE INHERITANCE PART TWO at The Bent Proves Intimate On An Epic Scale

SPECIAL TO BWW BY CONTRIBUTOR JOE SAVANT

Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance Part Two opened the 2025–26 season at The Bent in Palm Springs on Friday, October 17. This follows The Inheritance Part One, which closed the 2024–25 season.

Inspired by E.M. Forster’s Howards End, The Inheritance premiered at London’s Young Vic in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway in November 2019. The London production won numerous awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Theatre Award, and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Play. On Broadway, The Inheritance won both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Play, as well as honors for Best Direction and multiple acting awards.

An epic work running over seven hours and presented in two parts, The Inheritance reimagines Howards End in contemporary New York’s gay community. Spanning three generations of gay men, it connects the past, present, and future, exploring themes of community, legacy, and responsibility — particularly in remembering the trauma and loss of the AIDS crisis. The play examines the emotional and moral costs of identity, ambition, and survival in the post-AIDS era, while also confronting class and privilege in stark contrast to those less advantaged.

Under Steve Rosenbaum’s smooth and precise direction, this production achieves intimacy on an epic scale. Despite its three-hour running time, the pace never drags. Jason Reale’s elegant, muted set design and Nick Wass’s evocative lighting create a versatile backdrop that moves fluidly from the streets of Manhattan to an upstate farmhouse.

It is the standout performances of Thomas Dodge Wheatley, Alex Price, Mikey Ragusa, Brian Newkirk, and Terry Ray that bring Lopez’s story vividly to life. They are supported by an excellent ensemble cast including James Anthony Blanco, Ronny Borrelli, Kai Brothers, Travis Creston Detwiler, and Willie Mullins. In the final act, Danielle Kennedy delivers an emotional climax that beautifully ties together the play’s past and present threads.

At its core, this journey centers around a house — much like the one inherited in Forster’s Howards End. But here, the inheritance is more than a house; it is a legacy. It is a bridge between generations, a responsibility to carry forward the pain, loss, and lessons of the AIDS crisis into the consciousness of the younger generation. This play tells that story with both heartbreak and hope.

PHOTO CREDIT: JIM FOX

The Inheritance Part Two runs at the Palm Springs Cultural Center through November 2. For tickets or more information on THE BENT visit 

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