All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

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

Review: A Harrowing Puppet Show, ‘Demolishing Everything With Amazing Speed’ by Ben Brantley

The series of short plays, written in 1917, have a macabre tone, unfolding as a bright catalog of carnage and vivisection.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:27PM
Thursday, July 7, 2016

Review: Homeless Teenagers, Strutting and Seething in ‘Runaways’ by Ben Brantley

This teeming revival of Elizabeth Swados’s 1978 musical melds a pack of 25 young actors into one vital, desperate voice.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:57PM
Sunday, July 3, 2016

Review: ‘Tumacho,’ a Rootin-Tootin’ Musical, Keeps Its Poker Face by Ben Brantley

This absurdist spoof explores notions of masculinity in a Wild West saloon, without its cast cracking up. The audience needn’t worry about the same.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:56PM
Friday, July 1, 2016

James Houghton: The ‘Samurai Spirit’ of Signature Theater by Ben Brantley

Mr. Houghton started Signature in 1991, devoting each season to the work of a single dramatist. A cancer diagnosis has led him to resign.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:27PM
Sunday, June 26, 2016

Review: Urban Nightmares as Puppets in ‘The Paper Hat Game’ by Ben Brantley

This playful show masterfully provides a multidimensional portrait of a city in perpetual upheaval and a man who is nearly crushed by it.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:10PM

The Week Ahead: ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ With Mercy, at Shakespeare & Company by Ben Brantley

Tina Packer, who is directing the play for Shakespeare & Company, tackles a work in which, she says, each character is “racist and sexist.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:26PM
Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Review: Pun Like an Egyptian Comic Strip in ‘The Tomb of King Tot’ by Ben Brantley

A comic strip format is among the delights of this drama, part of the Summerworks festival of new plays by Clubbed Thumb at the Wild Project.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:20PM
Monday, June 13, 2016

Review: Take a Ride on the Farce Train With Two From Ayckbourn by Ben Brantley

“Hero’s Welcome” and “Confusions“ run in repertory at 59E59 Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:00PM

Review: Petruchio Is a Woman, and Courtship Is a Beauty Pageant, in This ‘Taming of the Shrew’ by Ben Brantley

Janet McTeer plays one disturbed dude in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-woman production for Shakespeare in the Park.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Friday, June 10, 2016

‘Hamilton’ Costs Too Much? Here Are Some (Cheaper) Alternatives by Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood

Our theater critics suggest other productions with plenty of heat and star power.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:33PM

Review: ‘The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois’ Revels in Unease by Ben Brantley

The play, by Adam Rapp at Atlantic Stage 2, finds William Apps as an awkward man wrestling with anxiety.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:01PM
Thursday, June 9, 2016

Review: ‘Shining City’ Is Brighter With Matthew Broderick by Ben Brantley

Matthew Broderick is a man haunted by his wife’s ghost and seeking help from a therapist whose life eerily mirrors his own in Conor McPherson’s play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:16PM
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Review: ‘Radiant Vermin,’ Newlyweds on a Dodgy Path to a Dream House by Ben Brantley

A chosen couple, the house, and a little experiment, in this play by Philip Ridley, at 59E59 Theaters.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:08PM
Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Review: ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit’ Blends Rage With Gallows Humor by Ben Brantley

This play depicts the scabrous wit of a woman and a man who get to know each other when their cancer-afflicted mothers share a hospital room.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:57PM
Monday, June 6, 2016

Review: ‘War,’ a Deathbed Drama About Identity by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins by Ben Brantley

This play at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater conjures a fractious family in a hospital setting, a limbo populated by apes, and a wartime romance.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:00PM
Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Review: ‘Every Angel Is Brutal’ Adds Kitsch to a ’70s Show by Ben Brantley

The experimental playwright Julia Jarcho sets out to spoof “Charlie’s Angels” with listlessness.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:16PM
Friday, May 27, 2016

The Week Ahead: ‘Radiant Vermin’: Greed and a House of Mystery by Ben Brantley

Philip Ridley’s juicy little thriller starts previews this week at 59E59 Theaters as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00AM
Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Review: A Minimalist Version of ‘Peer Gynt’ Still Provokes by Ben Brantley

John Doyle has done his imaginative best to tame, through shrinkage, one of the great, shape-shifting monsters of world theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:02PM

Review: Domestic Doom, Fiercely Conveyed, in Ibsen and Strindberg Plays by Ben Brantley

Theater for a New Audience has paired these two suspenseful dramas in repertory through June 12 at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:02PM
Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Review: In ‘Incognito,’ the Brain Is Dramatic and Mysterious by Ben Brantley

This Nick Payne play uses 21 characters to pursue the elusive knowledge of how the mind works.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:16PM
Sunday, May 22, 2016

How to Keep a Musical Great: Call Heather Headley and Marin Mazzie by Ben Brantley

The actresses who replaced Jennifer Hudson in “The Color Purple” and Kelli O’Hara in “The King and I” brought a new feistiness to the roles.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32PM

Review: ‘Signature Plays’ Triple Bill Reveals Truth in the Mirror’s Lies by Ben Brantley

The collection of three short vintage works at the Pershing Square Signature Theater includes Edward Albee’s “The Sandbox.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:32PM
Friday, May 20, 2016

Review: In ‘Cal in Camo,’ a Raw Welcome to Motherhood by Ben Brantley

William Francis Hoffman’s play at Rattlesticks Playwrights explores family bonds and inadequacies as the central characters deal with their situation in rural Illinois.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Review: In ‘The Ruins of Civilization,’ a Bleak Future, Brightly Told by Ben Brantley

Presented by the Manhattan Theater Club, Penelope Skinner’s account of British family life in a not too distant time bears a disquieting resemblance to today.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:31PM
Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Review: Rupert Everett Brings Oscar Wilde to the Stage in ‘The Judas Kiss’ by Ben Brantley

David Hare’s drama shows Wilde before and after his imprisonment for homosexuality, illustrating love as a force both sacred and profane.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:19PM
Thursday, May 12, 2016

Review: Passion Pursued, With a Yawn, in ‘Do I Hear a Waltz?’ by Ben Brantley

Encores! revives a 1965 romantic work that features music by Richard Rodgers on the wane, and Stephen Sondheim on the rise.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:49PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Tony Awards: Who Will Win (and Who Should) by Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood

Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood of The Times make their picks.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:12AM
Sunday, May 8, 2016

Review: In ‘Bianco,’ Muscle-Bending, Air-Swimming and Fire-Eating by Ben Brantley

This circus show is in a large, riverside tent erected under the Brooklyn Bridge.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:06PM
Monday, May 2, 2016

Review: ‘Toast’ Blends Farce With Kitchen-Sink Realism by Ben Brantley

Beneath the rowdy humor, there is always the sense of a desperate emptiness in Richard Bean’s comedy about the rhythms of a blue-collar workday.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:26PM
Sunday, May 1, 2016

Review: A Darwinian ‘Streetcar’ With a Feminist Streak by Ben Brantley

“A Streetcar Named Desire,” directed by Benedict Andrews, is a brave take on a classic play that envelops the audience in a timelessly primeval world.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:13PM

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