All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Review: ‘Miles for Mary,’ a Sendup of the Interminable Meeting From Hell by Ben Brantley

This play from the Mad Ones company would send you bolting for the exit, screaming, if it weren’t so funny and unexpectedly touching.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:39PM
Friday, October 7, 2016

Review: ‘Fit for a Queen’ Sees ‘Dynasty’ Centuries Before the TV Show by Ben Brantley

This play, by the Classical Theater of Harlem at 3LD Art & Technology Center, finds Egyptian royalty behaving like divas in the 15th-century B.C.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:09PM
Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Review: ‘The Roads to Home’ Offers Gossip and Insanity Most Genteel by Ben Brantley

This program of three short plays by Horton Foote stars the wonderful Hallie Foote, the playwright’s daughter, and returns to his fictitious Harrison, Tex.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:34PM
Friday, September 30, 2016

Review: ‘Battlefield’ Explores the Silence After the War by Ben Brantley

Peter Brook brings his follow-up to “Mahabharata” to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:07PM
Thursday, September 29, 2016

Review: ‘The Encounter’ Is a High-Tech Head Trip Through an Amazon Labyrinth by Ben Brantley

Simon McBurney’s astonishing one-man show, from the British troupe Complicite, immerses the audience in an aural landscape where time and space collapse.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Review: ‘All the Ways to Say I Love You,’ a Lesson in Guilt by Ben Brantley

Judith Light performs this Neil LaBute monologue about a schoolteacher racked with regret over an inadvisable decision.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:37PM
Monday, September 26, 2016

Let’s Play ‘Underground Railroad Game’: A Lacerating Comedy on Race by Ben Brantley

This shocking play from the Philadelphia-based Lightning Rod Special troupe is about finding ways to speak to one another about an unspeakable American institution.

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

Review: ‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem,’ an Avatar of Divine Vengeance by Ben Brantley

Nathan Alan Davis’s contemplative and largely inert play depicts the famous leader of a slave uprising as a biblical martyr and prophet.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:48PM
Sunday, September 18, 2016

Review: In ‘What Did You Expect?,’ a Potluck of Election-Year Anxiety by Ben Brantley

Richard Nelson portrays life in a political season as a bewildering mirage for an extended family that finds itself in reduced circumstances.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:25PM
Saturday, September 17, 2016

An Appraisal: A Playwright Who Saw the Minotaur Inside All of Us by Ben Brantley

Throughout his work, Edward Albee insisted that our most primitive instincts kept asserting themselves in even the most civilized settings.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:56PM
Thursday, September 15, 2016

Review: ‘The Birds’: Less-Than-Fierce-Feathered Nature in Revolt by Ben Brantley

The title creatures of Conor McPherson’s play “The Birds” are a surprisingly low-key lot.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:19PM
Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Cate Blanchett and Chekhov, Together on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Theatergoers will have two chances to check out the playwright: productions with Diane Lane and with Ms. Blanchett in her Broadway debut.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:08PM
Sunday, September 11, 2016

Review: ‘Bears in Space,’ an Interstellar Romp Through Winsome Silliness by Ben Brantley

Performed by four puppet-wielding, stricken-looking men in their 20s, Eoghan Quinn’s play at the Origin’s 1st Irish festival is giddily endearing.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:54PM

Review: ‘The Wolves’: A Pack of Female Warriors, Each Determined to Score by Ben Brantley

Sarah’s DeLappe’s exciting play about a high school soccer team creates a buzz of personalities whose thoughts and emotions move at warp speed.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:54PM
Thursday, September 8, 2016

Review: In ‘Spamilton,’ Broadway’s Savior Meets His Match. It’s Not Burr. by Ben Brantley

This spoof from Gerard Alessandrini, the creator of “Forbidden Broadway,” takes aim at “Hamilton” and its place in the battlefield of musicals.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:22PM
Thursday, August 18, 2016

The Week Ahead: An Angel Introduces Bats to Trojans by Ben Brantley

Ellen McLaughlin, who played the celestial messenger in “Angels in America” on Broadway, brings her “Trojan Women” to the Flea Theater’s resident actors.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:19AM
Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Brantley in Britain: Review: ’Groundhog Day,’ All Over Again, Now With Song and Dance by Ben Brantley

A hip, cuddly and cunningly sadistic musical adaptation of the 1993 Bill Murray movie has just opened in London.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:21PM

Brantley in Britain: Summertime, and the Revivals in London are Breezy by Ben Brantley

Productions of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “The Threepenny Opera,” “Show Boat” and “Guys and Dolls” are fun and fresh diversions.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:57AM
Sunday, August 14, 2016

How Mark Rylance Became Olivia Onstage by Ben Brantley

Mr. Rylance’s portrayal in “Twelfth Night” is, hands down, our chief theater critic’s favorite Shakespeare performance. The actor tells us how he developed the role.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:46PM
Monday, August 8, 2016

Brantley in Britain: On the London Stage, Love Doesn’t Just Hurt, It Kills by Ben Brantley

Several productions this summer offer grim but engrossing plots — even the farces, which are propelled by the characters’ lies, adding a sting to the laughter.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:08PM
Friday, August 5, 2016

Jesse Eisenberg on the Surprising Success of ‘The Spoils’ in London by Ben Brantley

Mr. Eisenberg and Scott Elliott, the show’s director, discussed the play and the differences between American and British audiences.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:45PM
Thursday, August 4, 2016

Review: A Journey Through Uncharted Waters in ‘Men on Boats’ by Ben Brantley

There isn’t a man in the 10-member cast of this rollicking history pageant by Jaclyn Backhaus.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:16PM
Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Brantley in Britain: Ben Brantley Answers Your London Theater Questions by Ben Brantley

The chief theater critic of The New York Times discusses onstage politics and recommends a new “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson, among others.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:33AM

Barbra Streisand Sets the Record Straight by Ben Brantley

At 74, as she embarks on a memoir, an album and a rare tour, the megastar is intent on correcting (the tiniest) errors and on defining her own legacy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:33AM
Monday, August 1, 2016

Brantley in Britain: In London, Back-Stabbing and Conniving (Onstage and Off) by Ben Brantley

Plays like “Richard III” and “The Spoils” evoke the fickle alliances and megalomaniacs associated with “Brexit” and real-life politics.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:26PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Brantley in Britain: Our Chief Theater Critic Is in London and Wants to Hear From You by Ben Brantley

Ben Brantley is covering what’s happening on British stages during the next few weeks and is looking for input from audience members.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:14PM
Monday, July 25, 2016

Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Casts a Spell Onstage by Ben Brantley

Time is a crucial element in this drama, which captures the narrative grip of J.K. Rowling’s prose in a staging at the Palace Theater in London.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:25PM
Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Week Ahead: Two Tastes of Welty’s Mississippi for the Summer Swelter by Ben Brantley

Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” and the memoir “One Writer’s Beginnings” are being staged at the Studio Theater at Theater Row.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:34PM
Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Review: ‘War Paint’ Recalls Two Cosmetics Titans by Ben Brantley

In this musical, Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole riff on the beauty market rivalry between Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:02AM

Review: ‘Privacy,’ a Play That Urges You to Keep Your Smartphone On by Ben Brantley

Secrets are revealed — perhaps your own — in this production, starring Daniel Radcliffe, at the Public Theater. It’s a magic show for the online age.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:21AM
Monday, July 11, 2016

Review: A Byzantine Path to Middle East Peace in ‘Oslo’ by Ben Brantley

J.T. Rogers revisits the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, creating personal catharsis and illumination from an international drama.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:25PM

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