This sexy scene in The Inheritance is not actually the most memorable in the play. That comes at the end of the first part of this two-part play, when the young gay men who died during the peak of the AIDS epidemic walk from the back of the theater one by one to the stage to shake hands with the living.

Goussy Célestin leading the audience in the NYC AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle during the epilogue of Novenas for a Lost Hospital

In my article for TDF Stages, I look at three new plays that focus on AIDS —
“The Inheritance” by Matthew Lopez, which begins performances on Broadway September 27, opening in November; and Off-Broadway both “As Much As I Can,” running at Joe’s Pub throughSeptember 16, and “Novenas for a Lost Hospital” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater through October 13 — and ask

Why was there a gap of nearly a quarter of a century before new shows about AIDS graced mainstream stages? Why is it happening now? How do these works differ from landmark plays such as Angels in America, which Lopez calls “the urtext of my generation as theatre artists and myself as a gay man?”

Novenas for a Lost Hospital: Natalie Woolams-Torres, Leland Fowler, Ken Barnett, Kelly McAndrew, Kathleen Chalfant

Novenas for a Lost Hospital; : Ken Barnett, Justin Genna

Novenas for a Lost Hospital: Kathleen Chalfant, Alvin Keith, Justin Genna, Kelly McAndrew

At the end of “Novenas for a Lost Hospital,” which sweeps through the 161-year history of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, focusing on the cholera and AIDS epidemics, Kathleen Chalfant as Mother Seton leads the audience down the narrow staircase to the street, and then the block and a half over to the so-called St. Vincent’s Triangle, a new park across the street from where the hospital once stood. It’s the site of the New York City AIDS Memorial. The audience stood in a circle for the epilogue, beneath the white steel triangle canopy of the memorial.

Samuel H. Levine, Kyle Soller and Andrew Burnap in The Inheritance

Samuel H. Levine and Andrew Burnap in The Inheritance

Kyle Soller and John Benjamin Hickey in The Inheritance

Cory Gibson in As Much As I Can.

As Much As I Can

I allude to the landmark original theater about AIDS on New York stages from 1985 to 1996. Here’s a partial list, with their opening dates, and whether they were on Broadway or Off Broadway

As Is  by William M. Hoffman – Off Broadway March 1985, Broadway May 1985

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer April 1985

Just Say No by Larry Kramer 1988

A Quiet End by Robin Swados 1985, but first produced Off Broadway in 1990

The Baltimore Waltz Off Broadway January 1992

Falsettos April 1992

The Destiny of Me by Larry Kramer October 1992

Angels in America: Millenium Approaches Broadway May 1993

Angels in America: Perestroika November 1993

Love, Valour Compassion by Terrence McNally Off-Bway 1994, Broadway 1995

Rent Off Broadway and then Broadway 1996