Broadway Review: ‘The Inheritance’

The real hero of “The Inheritance,” Matthew Lopez’s thoughtful, moving and painfully funny play, is E.M. Forster, the celebrated English author of “Howards End,” “A Room with a View,” “A Passage to India,” and “Maurice,” that last a gay-themed novel published after his death in 1970. It’s quite the literary thrill to find the great writer alive and onstage (and called here by his middle name, Morgan) in Lopez’s free-form borrowings from and musings on “Howards End.” As played with searching intelligence by Paul Hilton, who originated the role at the Young Vic and in its Oliver Award-winning West End transfer, Morgan/Forster emerges as a brilliantly talented writer and an achingly sensitive man.

Stephen Daldry (“An Inspector Calls,” “Billy Elliot”) directs this epic two-parter in a sinuous manner that suits the playwright’s flowing thoughts, and gives his characters the freedom to roam, to learn and, eventually, to grow. Designer Bob Crowley assists with a sleek set — a flat white surface of infinite playing space, with scenes and settings defined by Jon Clark’s sharp lighting design — that makes complex movement look like a walk in the park.