The Inheritance - YV

A question for those who have booked and those who have visited many times.
I tried to book a ticket for "Inheritance" but there was no seating plan in order to chose my preferred seat.
Is there a problem with my browser or they don't know what the seating arrangement will be?

Here tonight for the first preview of part 1. Announced as 3 hours 20 minutes with two intervals.

Will see if it runs to time!

How's Vanessa Redgrave? And the acting in general?

How was John Benjamin Hickey? Saw him last year on Broadway and he was terrific

I was the only one who laughed at the Redford and Fonda/Barefoot in the Park joke. Had the feeling that I was the only one in the audience who had seen that movie.

Stephen Daldry and Joely Richardson were in the audience. Not together.

First time poster, long time lurker.

This play really needs editing. I think there’s a great two and half hour play in there. But this was interminable at times. The man next to me fell asleep and slumped into me, so act one was excruciating.

The debt to Angels is huge and I wonder if this would have have been allowed to run over two parts if it weren’t for the revivial last year. That said, the ending is beautiful and I had tears rolling down my face, so the pay off is there. My husband hated it, and just doesn’t want to go to part two, so likely I have a spare!

I haven’t been able to shake it this morning. I will probably be tempted to go and see part one again later in the run as I am sure there will be pruning.

Literally no set, just some props, mean that the dialogue has to work really hard.This means it can go from captivating (the scenes about the bathhouse and vomiting in the Hamptons, pretty much any scene with all of the friends talking and joking) to deadening (the election scene, the club scene).

Some remarkable performances. Kyle Soller (?) stands out for me and the guy playing his partner has such a cruel beauty, you can’t take your eyes off him.

No Vanessa Redgrave. No women at all.

I am looking forward to seeing what part two brings. I agree that it will probably be very different to part one.

He doesn’t like writing about writing, he thinks it’s lazy art, so the set-up (EM Forster helps a writer tell his story, and then remains throughout the performance to offer advice and direction at critical moments) made him gnash his teeth (but it delighted me). He felt Lopez should have “show, not tell, tattooed on his eyelids” (he’s wrong, it should be “edit, edit, edit”) and the lack of women became, by the end, essentially erasure. This was where we diverged the most, but i am not going to go into detail for risk of spoilers.

It’s not a complete play. We end with little resolution and most stories are only partly told. The last scene (which I think is easily the equal of the last scene of part one of Angels) is so well-played as to make you forget this in the moment. It was a 75% standing ovation (undeserved for the play as a whole, deserved for that scene.) That said, I think it will get tighter and I would be worried that you will regret not seeing at least part of it if you could (assuming your FOMO is as strong as mine!!)

It’s sounds like a western indulgence

For the middle classes

Just briefly, so as to not spoil this.

It is a scene with Samuel H. Levine, who drops his towel, making it very clear he's American. Probably lasts as long as the nudity in Hair, with a bit of build up first.

And for those who want to know where to sit. The first three rows or so are below stage level and also have the actors not currently on stage leaning against the side. I think they'll all have restrictions, certainly in the front row.

Rows D backwards should be fine.

And for nudity, the best view would be central mid stalls. If you're sat to the left (from the audience view), you'll get a rear view.

I'll probably say a bit more later, especially after I eventually see Part 2, but I'll go as far as to say that this is fantastic. I was really impressed. It's scope is wide, perhaps therefore not focused enough, but it's funny, charming, heartbreaking and intense in all the right places. I only had a slightly sore bum towards the end of act 1, but I didn't have any problems with the pace or losing interest in any particular part of it. Well acted, very well lit, well directed, well written. If part 2 keeps this up it would be five stars from me.

On a practical level, I had great stalls with G13/14 but apart from the first couple of rows I wouldn't think any position in the theatre would be an issue. My only problem is that at a certain point, someone walked over the top of me and my partner as they descended the stairs, as part of the production. Took us out of the moment, wish they hadn't done that. I didn't check the time immediately after, but I reckon we hit about 3 hours 30 minutes total, which is what they were saying as we were walking in. Act 1 interval is 15 minutes, Act 2 interval is 10 minutes. No gasps tonight from anyone with the nudity, which was arguably unnecessary but whatever.

Go see this.