All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Review: ‘Fulfillment Center’ Finds the Poetry in Missed Connections by Ben Brantley

In this impeccably realized play by Abe Koogler, four mismatched characters reach out to each other in a New Mexico desertscape.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Monday, June 19, 2017

Review: Specters of the Stage Enchant in ‘Ghost Light’ by Ben Brantley

Third Rail Projects turns the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center into a haunted house of theatrical ego.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:36PM
Thursday, June 15, 2017

An Appraisal: A Patrician Older Gentleman Morphs Into an Angry Young Man by Ben Brantley

A.R. Gurney’s passion for theater spilled over the edges of his work, from “The Dining Room” through “Love Letters”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:06PM
Monday, June 12, 2017

Review: In ‘Bella,’ an Indomitable Heroine Goes West by Ben Brantley

Kirsten Childs’s musical at Playwrights Horizons is a picaresque tale about a young woman and her unusual protector.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Sunday, June 11, 2017

Review: The Unspeakable Pain of an African-American Afterlife by Ben Brantley

In James Ijames’s play “Kill Move Paradise,” four young black men try — and fail — to understand how and why they died.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36PM
Friday, June 9, 2017

Review: A Shaggy Fish Story With a Bounty of Questing Heroines by Ben Brantley

In Alex Borinsky’s “Of Government,” life keeps taking the most unexpected turns for a group of eccentric women.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:18PM
Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Review: ‘Raw Bacon’ Finds Fearful Poetry in an Iraq War Vet’s Mind by Ben Brantley

An actor and a playwright mesh seamlessly in Christina Masciotti’s “Raw Bacon From Poland,” starring Joel Perez as a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM
Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Review: A Virtuoso of Depression Broods Again in ‘Animal’ by Ben Brantley

Rebecca Hall demonstrates why she’s the master of the dark mood in Clare Lizzimore’s bleak play

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Thursday, June 1, 2017

Review: In ‘The Government Inspector,’ Dumb and Dumber, Deliciously by Ben Brantley

Red Bull Theater’s rollicking production of this Gogol play finds the cathartic value of satirizing bad behavior.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:12PM

5 Must-See Shows if You’re in New York This Month by Ben Brantley

June brings a comedy for those who prefer to be weirded-out; a show for theatergoers with itchy feet; and Kevin Spacey in the role of Clarence Darrow.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:36AM
Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A Giddy ‘Government Inspector,’ Restaged by the Red Bull Theater by Ben Brantley

The cast of a new adaptation has such masters of mayhem as Michael Urie, Arnie Burton, Stephen DeRosa, Michael McGrath and Mary Testa.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:24AM
Monday, May 22, 2017

A ‘Hamlet’ Poised Between Cultures (and Languages) by Ben Brantley

In this reimagined version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, the Prince of Denmark becomes the Prince of Persia.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:24PM
Sunday, May 21, 2017

Review: ‘The Whirligig’ Is a Feast for Actors, by a Knowing Chef by Ben Brantley

With the beautifully performed but overplotted “Whirligig,” Hamish Linklater considers the forms and consequences of addiction.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Review: A Mythic Force Rages in the Welsh ‘Iphigenia in Splott’ by Ben Brantley

Gary Owen’s one-character play, starring a dynamic Sophie Melville, is a portrait of a contemporary human firestorm.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:48PM
Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Review: Don’t Bother Keeping a ‘Secret’ With Derren Brown Around by Ben Brantley

This London stage and television star gets inside your head during his enthralling, baffling one-mentalist show.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Monday, May 15, 2017

Review: ‘Venus’ Recalls a Woman’s Fortune, and Her Ruin by Ben Brantley

A revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s bio-drama portrays a woman whose form was her fortune, and ruin.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:36PM
Thursday, May 11, 2017

Brantley in Britain: On London Stages, That Cozy Battlefield Called Marriage by Ben Brantley

Some of this season’s biggest West End hits are devoted to the blurring of the marital and the martial.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:18PM

Just How Great Was That ‘Comet’? Our Critics Debate the Broadway Season by Ben Brantley and Jesse Green

Our critics debate a varied, and divisive, Broadway season.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:12AM
Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Review: The Private Dystopias of ‘Arlington’ and ‘Rooms’ by Ben Brantley

In the drama “Arlington” and the installation “Rooms,” the Irish playwright Enda Walsh conjures a subversive throng of unreliable narrators.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM
Friday, May 5, 2017

Brantley in Britain: ‘Angels in America,’ Still Stretching Toward the Heavens by Ben Brantley

A 25th-anniversary revival at the National Theater in London confirms its place in the pantheon of great American dramas.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:36AM
Thursday, May 4, 2017

Brantley in Britain: Review: ‘The Ferryman’ in Jez Butterworth’s Ireland by Ben Brantley

This play, directed by Sam Mendes, overflows with characters, plots and life itself.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:36PM
Tuesday, May 2, 2017

2017 Tony Awards: Our Theater Critics Discuss the Nominations by Ben Brantley and Jesse Green

The co-chief theater critics Ben Brantley and Jesse Green, on the nominated plays, musicals and actors.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:06PM
Monday, May 1, 2017

Brantley in Britain: Stoppard Classics, Reborn for an Age of Uncertainty by Ben Brantley

Bright revivals in London find the prescience in a young playwright’s tomfoolery. All that, and Daniel Radcliffe.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:54PM
Sunday, April 30, 2017

Brantley in Britain: Review: A Souped-Up ‘Dreamgirls’ Roars in London by Ben Brantley

Amber Riley owns center stage without even seeming to try in Casey Nicholaw’s high-octane revival of this Supremes-inspired musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:48PM
Thursday, April 27, 2017

Review: A Sequel Asks, Who’s Knocking on the Door at ‘A Doll’s House’? by Ben Brantley

Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” funny and illuminating, dares to wonder what Ibsen’s Nora Helmer has been up to since she slammed that door.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Review: A Scam Artist’s Masterwork in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ by Ben Brantley

Corey Hawkins soars as a great pretender in this otherwise earthbound revival of John Guare’s masterwork.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Monday, April 24, 2017

Review: ‘Anastasia,’ a Russian Princess With an Identity Crisis by Ben Brantley

This epic musical about an amnesiac princess suffers from its own identity crisis.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM
Sunday, April 23, 2017

Review: ‘The Antipodes’ and Ambiguous Brainstorming by Ben Brantley

In this endlessly fascinating work, Annie Baker, the author of “The Flick,” considers the art and necessity of fabulation.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM

Review: Some Sugar but Not Enough Spice in This ‘Chocolate Factory’ by Ben Brantley

Christian Borle is the eccentric Willy Wonka in this tentative musical based on the Roald Dahl children’s classic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM
Thursday, April 20, 2017

Review: ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Is Bright, Brassy and All Bette by Ben Brantley

In this rose-colored revival of the 1964 war horse “Hello, Dolly!,” Bette Midler provides a dazzling lesson in star power

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM
Tuesday, April 18, 2017

‘Indecent’ Pays Heartfelt Tribute to a Stage Scandal by Ben Brantley

Paula Vogel makes her long-awaited Broadway debut, telling the story of a Yiddish drama shut down in 1923.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:48PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic