Atmosphere outside the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on November 17, 2019 (Photo by Bruce ... [+] Glikas/FilmMagic)

The British import that was once touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread quickly turned out to be toast.

After struggling to find an audience on Broadway, The Inheritance will close next month after 138 performances. We are all extremely proud of this production and the 32 actors who bring this ambitious story to life eight times a week and honor the legacy of those weve lost to the AIDS epidemic, stated the lead producers of the play.

Yet, the implosion of The Inheritance on Broadway might seem a little surprising after its significant success overseas.

The $9.1 million play arrived in New York last September as what several publications described as one of the most buzzed-about shows of Broadways fall season. It had received more awards than any other new play opening on the Great White Way, and defeated The Lehman Trilogy to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play in Londons West End.

Here is the play of the year, and last year, and quite possibly next year as well, praised one British critic. It instantly looks like a modern classic, perhaps the most important American play of the century so far, echoed another reviewer, giving it five stars.

Yet, despite the great fanfare in the West End, The Inheritance often earned less than half of its potential revenue each week on Broadway, and sometimes made even less than its $460,000 weekly operating costs. The two-part play, which had sold every single seat during its premiere at Londons Young Vic Theatre, also failed to fill up more than two-thirds of the seats at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during most weeks.

Its reviews on Broadway did not help.

In contrast to the rave reviews that the show received overseas, one critic on Broadway wrote that The Inheritance isnt a great play or even a very good play, but [playwright Matthew] Lopezs opus is compelling watchable in the way that old so-bad-theyre-good movies are: finger-snapping one-liners and dramatic fireworks explode throughout as logic and character development are abandoned. You will be riveted watching this lurid, weepy, pandering, derivative, and very grand soap opera, the reviewer continued.

Hoping to hit the jackpot on Broadway, the producers had counted too much on it being so well received in London, commented drama critic Michael Portantiere. Because The Inheritance had been showered with awards left and right overseas, many individuals expected that it would continue to receive praise in New York.

But, a smash hit in the West End doesn't necessarily guarantee the same success on Broadway, said marketing executive Maris Smith, who previously helped develop marketing strategies for Broadway shows like Mamma Mia! and Annie.

While receiving rave reviews in New York might have helped the show become a must-see event like Hamilton, Springsteen on Broadway, and American Utopia, Broadway theatergoers have different tastes than British theatergoers, and the divergence appears to be significant for shows set in the United States that are presented in London.

When The Inheritance was performed in the West End, it must have a little bit romantic for London audiences to see New York gays, explained Sam Maher, a Broadway producer and influencer marketing consultant. It was probably so cool for British audiences to see what life is like for homosexual men across the pond, he said, and, for the most part, they are not as critical, because it is not their everyday lives, and they dont have ownership over it, echoed Portantiere.

But, when The Inheritance was performed in front of New York audiences, the characters and their lives seemed a little less enchanting. These are gays who we know, Maher said. Gay men we know are going to Fire Island, and there are older gay men we know who have houses upstate, he said. We know this story, Maher stated.

Its story of love and loss in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic might have been too familiar and too close to home for some Broadway theatergoers, much like the British play Enron, which received rave reviews in London and then closed after only 16 performances on Broadway in 2010. While British audiences found the story of a financial fraud at a large American corporation to be fascinating, [o]n Broadway, maybe because the Goldman Sachs story was unraveling nightly on television, or maybe because the Enron collapse was a terrible episode best forgotten, whatever it was, the Wall Street crowd didnt come, recalled Matthew Byam Shaw, one of its producers. Many New York theatergoers did not want to spend their free time watching a show about financial misconduct after losing money in the recession, and, likewise, many New York theatergoers might not have wanted to spend their free time watching a show about life as a homosexual man in Manhattan after losing loved ones in the AIDS epidemic.

Also, the fact that a major character is a Trump voter ... might be a little too raw for New Yorkers, surmised Maher. British people can say, it [stinks] for you guys over there with Trump, he said. But, for Americans, this is a reality that we are living with everyday, and this is too raw to make jokes about or to try to analyze on stage, Maher commented.

In addition, the play might have been too long to attract most Broadway theatergoers.

With two parts spanning over six hours like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Inheritance was not a casual walk to the TKTS Booth, and choose your show for the night type of deal, said Smith. It required setting aside either one full day or two blocks of time during the week to watch the full show, as well as purchasing two separate tickets. It is a tough ask monetarily and time-wise, explained Maher, and the schedule of the play might have been inconvenient for tourists with a limited amount of time to see shows in New York.

In addition, once the play opened on Broadway, and the marketing team replaced the flattering remarks from the British press with vague excerpts from the Broadway reviews, some individuals felt that their efforts to attract local theatergoers were misguided. Some of the decisions they made seem so wrong-headed, especially the ridiculous attempt to make the show as a love letter to New York City, Portantiere stated. It doesnt have anything to do with that, he said, highlighting that a lot of the action doesnt even take place in New York City.

It was tremendously misleading, Portantiere complained.

Also, Maher believes that, while The Inheritance was not marketed much, the show relied too much on traditional advertising techniques, such as creating posters with the shows logo and some review excerpts. Key art and pull quotes kind of do nothing these days, he said, arguing that influencer content is much more compelling and engaging, and can convert ticket sales a lot better than bus stop ads with pull quotes.

With limited marketing and no Hollywood actors like Tom Hanks, I have not heard The Inheritance mentioned in the cultural zeitgeist since it opened, Maher realized. In fact, the only time that I am reminded that it is still there is when I sort the [Broadway weekly box office] grosses each week from lowest to highest to see which shows are really struggling, and I see that it has been among the lowest for the past two months, he admitted.

But, even when Broadway theatergoers did learn about the show, and chose to watch it, some individuals in its target audience might have been disappointed.

The gay community in New York has kind of rebelled against the show, Maher observed, adding that so many gay men of color were against it. He noticed that a lot of people of color were asking, where are the people of color in the story? Whereas the Caucasian character supporting President Trump received a lot of time on stage, people of color were very minor characters, and they were not front and center, he said.

The story was about older generations versus newer generations, and not about race, Maher recognized. But, in 2020, it is really hard for a culture of metropolitan queer men to champion something that is so white-centric, he said.

Also, Maher thought that the decision to cast straight actors as the leading homosexual roles in the show might have upset some theatergoers. It made Maher, a homosexual male, not feel represented, he said, and the whole show felt like a rehearsed representation of gay men instead of actually involving those people.

All those things conspired to make someone who is very woke think that this show is not very woke, Maher stated.

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Why The Inheritance Imploded On Broadway - Forbes