The Inheritance's Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr. and Arturo Luís Soria on the Play's Powerful and Healing Effect

Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr. and Arturo Luís Soria can now be seen making their Broadway debuts in Matthew Lopez's two-part play The Inheritance. The duo portrays several characters throughout the play's six acts, but most notably a married couple whose names are both Jason. The two newcomers stopped by Broadway.com's #LiveatFive to talk with Paul Wontorek about their recent opening night at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre and more.

The Inheritance marks both Daughtry and Soria's Broadway debuts and their first professional gigs post-graduation. While Daughtry is in Group 48 from Julliard (the same class as recent #LiveatFive guest Jayme Lawson), Soria is a recent graduate from Yale. "I can't believe I was in class eight months ago and now I'm here," Daughtry said. "Yes, this show is an epic, but it goes by so fast. I think of it as a magnifying glass where an inch on a table does't look that crazy, but when you magnify into it you see the detail. The play zooms in on the basic person-to-person human experience, and within that, it is epic."

The show premiered at London's Young Vic in 2018 before transferring to the West End, Daughtry and Soria The Inheritance for the Broadway engagement. "We're new to the production compared to those who transferred with it from London," Soria said. "We've gotten to insert ourselves into the work. [Playwright] Matthew [Lopez] was really generous in allowing me to bring Spanish to the play and inform the character by bringing myself to it. It's really exciting."

The six-hour play spans across two parts, meaning the actors have twice as much to memorize and rehearse. "The rehearsal process was very different than how they normally go," Daughtry said. "We would be jumping arounds to different scenes in different acts in different parts. It kept everyone on their toes and was a little manic but they instilled such a sense of play among us in a way where were are so relying on each other. There's not a daunting bone in my body for this."

Highlighting the stories of gay men across generations, The Inheritance brings the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the forefront. "The only word I can use to describe the reaction we get from audiences is powerful," Soria said. "I remember an older gentleman stopping me saying, 'This was literally my life' and asked how to write a letter to Matthew thanking him. I have two older gay men in my life who have been around since I was young and for them and their generation, this play's really about healing. They can walk out of the theater with this sense of being able to process what happened to them and their community at the time. It's powerful to feel that. It makes me feel like I have more responsibility to go out there every night and be even more authentic and true to tell the story with more vigor."

See Daughtry and Soria in The Inheritance, now playing at the Barrymore Theatre!

Watch the full #LiveatFive episode below