Posted: 5/31/20 at 8:45am
On May 30 "Plays in the House" hosted a reading of EVER SO HUMBLE by Tim Pinckney. I was surprised to learn that it was a contemporary gay adaptation of Howard's End written before Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance.
Lopez focuses on the tragic, philosophic side of the novel. Pinckney's is more of a romcom. Michael Urie played the Margaret Schlegal character. A starving actor who befriends a wealthy older man named (sigh) Howard. When Howard dies he wills Urie his house but the family intervenes. Urie is then wooed by Howard's son-in-law (rather then his ex-husband) and things end well. Helen Schlegel's role is split between Urie's two gossipy friends who provide sitcom banter.
The plot parallels to Howard's End are there but the work lacks the social commentary and point of view. Making Urie's love interest a mensch, rather than a cold capitalist, denies the story stakes and character arcs.
It's always nice to see Urie, and I'd like to see him in a production of The Inhertiance some day.
You can watch Ever So Humble here for now, though they tend to pull the shows from their channel quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWsjWJkw6zU
Updated On: 5/31/20 at 08:45 AM
