All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Review: In ‘Kid Victory,’ Rescued but Not Free by Ben Brantley

This dark musical by Greg Pierce and John Kander examines the ordeals of a teenager trying to recover from a drugged captivity.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:48PM
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Review: In ‘Everybody,’ Mortality Loves Company by Ben Brantley

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s take on a stark 15th-century morality play includes characters like Stuff, Death and Love.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32PM
Sunday, February 19, 2017

Review: ‘On the Exhale’ Addresses Grief and the Attraction of an Assault Rifle by Ben Brantley

Martín Zimmerman’s play, starring Marin Ireland, approaches the subject of American gun violence from a startlingly original perspective.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Thursday, February 16, 2017

Review: In ‘Escaped Alone’ Fears Small (Cats) and Large (Apocalypse) by Ben Brantley

Fear festers, burrows and blooms in Caryl Churchill’s short and wondrous play that plumbs the depths of 21st-century terrors.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:42PM

Review: ‘Evening at the Talk House’ Is Just the Dystopia Next Door by Ben Brantley

Wallace Shawn excavates moral cowardice in an authoritarian age, with Matthew Broderick as our guide.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:42PM
Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Review: ‘Man From Nebraska’ Delivers a Midlife Crisis of Faith by Ben Brantley

In this Tracy Letts play, an Everyman suddenly realizes he doesn’t believe in God and goes about re-examining all aspects of his life.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM

Review: In ‘Good Samaritans,’ They Sing and Dance, but This Isn’t ‘La La Land’ by Ben Brantley

This Richard Maxwell production at the Abrons Arts Center could be described as a sugar-free version of the new Hollywood musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM

In ‘Everybody,’ a New Angle on Race by Ben Brantley

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s new play is part of the Signature Theater Company’s Residency Five program.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32AM
Monday, February 13, 2017

Review: In ‘Life According to Saki,’ Whistling a Perversely Happy Tune by Ben Brantley

The author Katherine Rundell has repurposed some of Saki’s anarchic short stories for a 21st-century theater audience.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:36PM
Friday, February 10, 2017

Review: It’s Norman Mailer vs. Feminists in ‘The Town Hall Affair’ by Ben Brantley

Maura Tierney, Kate Valk, Scott Shepherd and the Wooster Group recreate a firestorm of a panel discussion in the timely and time-bending piece.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:32PM
Thursday, February 9, 2017

Review: That ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Close-Up, Finely Focused by Ben Brantley

The pared-down revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical relies more on Glenn Close’s astounding performance than the original lavish production could.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32PM
Thursday, February 2, 2017

5 Must-See Shows in New York This Month by Ben Brantley

Those setting fire to stages this month include Jake Gyllenhaal, Glenn Close and Joan of Arc.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:33PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2017

‘Life According to Saki,’ in the Trenches of World War I by Ben Brantley

Katherine Rundell’s work, directed by Jessica Lazar, begins previews at the Fourth Street Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:36PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Review: ‘Yen’ Is a Den of Family Dysfunction by Ben Brantley

Lucas Hedges stars in this highly physical production about two dog-owning brothers who are short on social skills and living in a squalid suburban London apartment.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:12PM
Friday, January 27, 2017

Review: Hungarian Musicians Bare Their Dark Side in ‘Our Secrets’ by Ben Brantley

This unsettling and imaginative production from Bela Pinter and Company looks back at state surveillance, sexual desires and the folk dancing scene in Communist Budapest.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:18PM
Thursday, January 19, 2017

Review: August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ Magnifies Marginalized Souls by Ben Brantley

With soaring language and an improvisatory jazz spirit, Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s revival brings lives shaped by privation to throbbing life.

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

Review: In ‘The Tempest,’ Liberation and Exhilaration by Ben Brantley

Set in a women’s prison, this production is the third and last installment of the director Phyllida Lloyd’s series of Shakespeare plays for Donmar Warehouse.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Sunday, January 15, 2017

Review: ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’: Oh Gosh, I’ve Turned Into My Mother by Ben Brantley

A revival of Martin McDonagh’s play features Marie Mullen as the mother, Mag; almost 20 years ago she played Maureen, Mag’s daughter.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:33PM
Friday, January 13, 2017

Review: ‘Time of Women’ Portrays Activists Haunted by a K.G.B. Ordeal by Ben Brantley

In this emotionally raw play from the Belarus Free Theater at the Under the Radar festival, three women relive their incarceration and interrogation.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:18PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2017

What August Wilson Means Now by Ben Brantley and Wesley Morris

Our critics Ben Brantley and Wesley Morris talk about listening to the playwright, a great chronicler of the 20th century.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:02AM
Sunday, January 8, 2017

Review: ‘The Present’: Even in Russia, It’s Hard to Turn 40 by Ben Brantley

Cate Blanchett stars in this Sydney Theater Company production of a Chekhov work, which features an eruption of runaway hedonism at a birthday party.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM

Review: ‘The Bitter Game’ Brings Black Lives Matter to the Fore by Ben Brantley

The play, by Keith A. Wallace, follows an African-American boy, Jamal, who from childhood on learns to keep his head up.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:18PM
Friday, January 6, 2017

‘Lula del Ray,’ a Spectral Parade of Fantastical Images by Ben Brantley

The action in this piece at the Under the Radar festival unfolds both on a screen and below it, as you watch illusion-makers work with video, shadow puppets and scrims.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:18PM
Thursday, January 5, 2017

Review: What if ‘Until Death Do Us Part’ Means a ‘Hundred Days’? by Ben Brantley

The married performers Shaun and Abigail Bengson fall in love and contemplate mortality in this concert-style memoir at the Under the Radar festival.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:12PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Review: The Devil Went Down to Chelsea to See ‘Prudencia Hart’ by Ben Brantley

You can get there in a handbasket, but the route proposed by “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart” is a lot more fun. And drinks are served.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:12PM
Monday, December 12, 2016

Review: Jealousy and Lies in a No-Exit Theater of War in ‘Othello’ by Ben Brantley

Daniel Craig is the Iago to the Othello of David Oyelowo in this breathless interpretation of Shakespeare’s taut portrait of lives razed by jealousy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Sunday, December 11, 2016

Review: ‘In Transit’ Goes on an a Cappella Ride by Ben Brantley

This musical subway portrait intends to meld a group of diverse, stressed travelers into a single voice.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Thursday, December 8, 2016

Review: Desert Awakening in ‘The Band’s Visit’ by Ben Brantley

The show, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, abounds with signs of new and exciting life in the contemporary American musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:12PM
Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Review: Dear Audiences of ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ Prepare to Cry by Ben Brantley

This play at the Public Theater, based on Cheryl Strayed’s book, is a handkerchief-soaking meditation on pain, loss, hope and forgiveness.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:36PM

Review: In This ‘Winter’s Tale,’ the King Is Insane. It’s as Simple as That. by Ben Brantley

In Declan Donnellan’s production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the homicidal protagonist’s motives are all too clear.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:24PM

An Evening of Song, Dance and the Devil in a Barroom by Ben Brantley

“The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart,” at the McKittrick Hotel, is a rambunctious yarn imported from Scotland.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:36PM

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