"The Inheritance" marketing strategy has proven to be a disaster. The play was pushed for months with aerial footage of the Manhattan skyline and generic two-tone photos of LGBTQ+ men and women, and then a superimposed (and meaningless to anyone but audience members who have seen the play) burning cherry blossom. The cast, young, attractive, should've been the focus. Make the play look provocative through its immediacy, even its romantic/erotic vibe, no small part of the drama. Instead, it was sold as intellectual vegetables, eat this, it's good for you. A lecture on history. The play is actually very entertaining, not terribly lecturing at all, and though it has a literary framing device, fully accessible to those unfamiliar with Forster. In recent weeks, we've seen more shots of the cast (highlighting Smith, still not the strongest choice, in my opinion) but it still looks like the audience is being told it's "must see." Give us shots of those young men, and lean into the energy they bring to the piece. They seem stuck on that damned burning flower, and as haunting as it is, hard to hang onto. Especially with a title as thematically generic as "inheritance."
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 12/18/19 at 08:01 AM
