1. Early life

2. Plays
     The Whipping Man    Somewhere    Reverberation    The Legend of Georgia McBride    The Inheritance  

3. References

Matthew Lopez is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is most widely known for his 2006 play The Whipping Man, which garnered an Obie^[1] and Lucille Lortel Awards ^[2] as well as the John Gassner New Play Award^[3] by the Outer Critics Circle for its New York premiere. His 2018 play The Inheritance opened at the Young Vic Theatre^[4] in March 2018 before transferring to the West End^[5] in October 2018. Lopez’s plays frequently examine American class structures, race, sexual identity and their relationships with American society at large.

Early life

Lopez was born in Panama City, Florida^[6] to two public school teachers. His father, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the older brother of actor Priscilla Lopez^[7]. Lopez graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in theatre performance.

Plays

The Whipping Man

Lopez’s breakout play The Whipping Man debuted at Luna Stage^[8] in Montclair, New Jersey in 2006 and premiered in New York at the Manhattan Theater Club^[9] in 2011, directed by Doug Hughes and starring Andre Braugher and Andre Holland. The off-Broadway production of The Whipping Man extended four times, and won Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards. Lopez won the John Gassner New Play Award for his writing.

The Whipping Man is set in Richmond, Virginia in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War and concerns two recently freed slaves encountering their former master. The former slaves, like their former master, identify as Jewish. The play examines the unique occurrence of Passover in 1865 beginning the day after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. It explores the meaning of freedom and the various ways people are enslaved—to addictions, to prejudices.

In his New York Times review^[10], Charles Isherwood called the play “emotionally potent, almost surreal in the layers of meaning it conjures.” Braugher and Holland both earned critical acclaim for their performances.

Between 2012 and 2016, The Whipping Man was one of most widely produced plays in America^[11].

Somewhere

The story of Somewhere has roots in Lopez’s family history; his father was an extra in the 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story, and appears on screen in the playground, just after the prologue^[15]

Reverberation

Lopez’s next play Reverberation premiered at Hartford Stage^[16] in 2015, directed by Maxwell Williams and starring Luke Macfarlane. The story follows Jonathan, a young gay New Yorker, who spends increasingly more time hold up in his Astoria apartment following a violent attack that has left him afraid to go out into the world. He is befriended by his new upstairs neighbor, Claire, a Holly Golightly-like character who, despite her active social life, is just as afraid and lonely as Jonathan. The play examines how violence – against women, against the LGBTQ community – impacts the lives of those both directly and indirectly affected by it. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times writes^[17] that “the play is marked by a perceptiveness about the echoing loneliness that many urban dwellers live with.”

The Legend of Georgia McBride

The Legend of Georgia McBride debuted at Denver Center of Performing Arts^[18] in 2015, and premiered off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre^[19] in 2015. The play tells the story of Casey, a down-on-his-luck Elvis impersonator who is induced to turn his jumpsuits into dresses and become a drag queen. The play toggles between quippy comedy and show-stopping dance numbers, with Charles Isherwood commenting^[20] that the play was “full of sass and good spirits – along with a spritz or two of sentimentality.”

In February 2018, New Regency announced it was developing the film adaptation of the play in association withJim Parsons' production company.^[21]

The Inheritance

In 2018, Lopez debuted his two-part play The Inheritance at the Young Vic Theatre in London, before transferring to the Noel Coward Theatre on the West End. The production was directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner Stephen Daldry^[22].

Set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance wrestles with what it means to be a gay man today, exploring relationships and connections across age and social class and asking what one generation's responsibilities may be to the next. The play is a loose adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End. The premiere featured a cast that included Vanessa Redgrave, John Benjamin Hickey, and Paul Hilton as Forster himself.

The play received widespread critical acclaim. The Daily Telegraph hailed it^[23] as “perhaps the most important American play of this century” and The Evening Standard declared^[24] the play “a work of rare grace, truth, and beauty.”

The Inheritance earned eight nominations at the 2019 Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Play. Lopez received the Evening Standard Award ^[25]and Critics Circle Theatre Award^[26] for Best New Play as well.

References

• Rhonda Faehn
• Rhonda Jones
• Rhonda Keenum
• Rhonda Latimer
• Rhonda Provost
• Rhonda Rajsich
• Rhonda Roland Shearer
• Rhonda Rompola
• Rhonda Rucker
• Rhonda Singh
• Rhonda Sivarajah
• Rhonda (trick 'r treat)
• Rhonda Vincent and the Rage
• Rhonda Watkins
• Rhondda Cynnon Taf
• Rhondda, Cynon, Taf
• Rhondda Cynon Taff
• Rhondda Group
• Rhondda jones
• Rhondda Jones
• Rhondda Leader
• Rhondda (National Assembly for Wales constituency)
• Rhondda Socialist Society
• Rhondda Transport
• Rhondda Transport Company