All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Review: Belarus Free Theater’s ‘Trash Cuisine’ Serves Politics With Teeth by Ben Brantley

With this show at La MaMa, an attack on institutionalized killing, Belarus Free Theater displays its customary razor-sharp commentary.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM

The Week Ahead: John Turturro Stars in ‘Zorba’ at City Center by Ben Brantley

The 1968 musical adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel “Zorba the Greek” is the final offering of this season’s Encores! series of musicals in concert.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:47PM
Monday, April 27, 2015

Theater Review: Review: ‘Nirbhaya,’ a Lamentation and a Rallying Cry for Indian Women by Ben Brantley

Five Indian women describe their experiences of sexual abuse in Yael Farber’s harrowing documentary drama at the Lynn Redgrave Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:29PM
Thursday, April 23, 2015

Review: Chita Rivera Stars in Kander and Ebb’s ‘The Visit’ by Ben Brantley

Ms. Rivera stars as a wealthy woman who returns to her Swiss hometown with a tempting proposal of murder in this macabre, long-gestating musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Theater Review: Review: ‘Something Rotten!,’ an Over-the-Top Take on Shakespeare by Ben Brantley

Unchecked enthusiasm and puns abound in this Broadway-does-the-Renaissance frolic, which namechecks pretty much every musical you’ve ever heard of.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Monday, April 20, 2015

Review: Renée Fleming Plays Against Type in ‘Living on Love’ by Ben Brantley

Ms. Fleming, the opera star, heads the cast of Joe DiPietro’s Broadway comedy as a tantrum-throwing egomaniacal opera star.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM

Review: In ‘Séquence 8’ Acrobats Defy Gravity and Constrictive Words by Ben Brantley

Les 7 Doigts de la Main, philosophizing acrobats with a gift for subverting metaphors, upend and mock the laws of physics.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:54PM
Sunday, April 19, 2015

Review: ‘Fun Home’ at the Circle in the Square Theater by Ben Brantley

This portrait of a girl and her father, adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel of a memoir, occupies the place where we all grew up, and will never be able to leave.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Friday, April 17, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015

Review: ‘The King and I,’ Back on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Bartlett Sher’s revival at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, starring Ken Watanabe and Kelli O’Hara, balances epic sweep with an intimate sensibility.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Review: ‘Finding Neverland,’ a Broadway Musical With Matthew Morrison by Ben Brantley

The musical at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, based on the 2004 movie about the creator of Peter Pan, heightens the screenplay’s life-affirming messages.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Review: ‘It Shoulda Been You,’ a Wedding on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Revisiting a very old theme in this big fat musical of a wedding, with all the trimmings (and Tyne Daly starring), by Brian Hargrove and Barbara Anselmi.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:25PM
Monday, April 13, 2015

Review: ‘39 Steps,’ Frenetic Thriller Spoof, Rises Again by Ben Brantley

Based with a wink on John Buchan’s 1915 novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, this comedy at the Union Square Theater has a cast of four but too many characters to count.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Sunday, April 12, 2015

Review: In Richard Eyre’s Production of ‘Ghosts,’ the Clean Parts Are the Most Disturbing by Ben Brantley

Richard Eyre’s production of the classic Ibsen play, at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, allows the audience to feel the full, bruising force of the drama.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Thursday, April 9, 2015

Review: ‘Wolf Hall,’ the Stage Version, Untangles Tudor History With Relish by Ben Brantley

The riveting two-part stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s best-selling novels about Henry VIII and his chaotic court is at the Winter Garden Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Review: ‘Cry, Trojans!’ Is the Wooster Group’s Take on ‘Troilus and Cressida’ by Ben Brantley

This portrait of love, betrayal and hypocrisy is reimagined through a Native American lens.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Thursday, April 2, 2015

Review: ‘Skylight,’ With Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy, Opens on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Stephen Daldry’s revival of David Hare’s play, starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy, plays off the dramatic duality of ex-lovers who are irresistibly drawn to each other.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The Week Ahead: Finding the Farce in Hitchcock, Again, ‘The 39 Steps’ by Ben Brantley

This delightfully dizzy little play, adapted from the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, returns to New York.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:19PM
Sunday, March 29, 2015

Review: ‘Twelfth Night,’ in Two Plays, Blurs Identity by Ben Brantley

“Twelfth Night (or What You Will)” and “What You Will (or Twelfth Night)” create worlds in which sexual desire and gender are always changing direction.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Review: In Richard Maxwell’s ‘The Evening,’ Going Gentle Into the Night, or Not by Ben Brantley

In this play at the Kitchen, three characters represent a multiple-choice way of dealing with life, and death.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:30PM

Review: In ‘Remote New York,’ an Unseen Tour Guide Calls the Shots by Ben Brantley

This interactive piece of street theater guides participants on a meticulously plotted tour of New York City and their own herd mentality.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:08PM
Sunday, March 15, 2015

Theater Review: Review: ‘On the Twentieth Century,’ With Kristin Chenoweth, Opens on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Scott Ellis’s revival of this 1978 musical about dueling egos on a train between Chicago and New York knows that when it comes to being hyperbolic, there’s no people like show people.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Friday, March 13, 2015

‘Cabaret’ and ‘Hedwig’ Get Tougher Onstage by Ben Brantley

Sienna Miller and John Cameron Mitchell, taking over roles played by other well-known actors, have given their characters new interpretations and new life.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:53PM
Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Review: ‘Josephine and I,’ a Tribute Show by Cush Jumbo by Ben Brantley

In this solo show, the British actress Cush Jumbo plays both a version of herself and the boundary-crossing, Paris-conquering Josephine Baker.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Sunday, March 8, 2015

Review: ‘The Audience,’ With Helen Mirren, Opens on Broadway by Ben Brantley

Peter Morgan’s history-skimming chat show about a monarch and her prime ministers is about as close as most of us are going to get to a cozy tête-à-tête with Queen Elizabeth II.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Thursday, March 5, 2015

Theater Review: Review: ‘Fish in the Dark,’ Larry David’s Antic Broadway Debut by Ben Brantley

In his Broadway debut as an actor and playwright, Mr. David plays a character not unlike his TV persona who gathers with his family at his father’s deathbed.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The Week Ahead: Doug Wright’s ‘Posterity,’ With John Noble and Hamish Linklater by Ben Brantley

Henrik Ibsen, that uncompromising father of the modern drama, is the center of Mr. Wright’s new play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:54PM
Sunday, March 1, 2015

Review: ‘John & Jen,’ a Revival Starring Kate Baldwin and Conor Ryan by Ben Brantley

In this musical, a woman has complicated relationships with her brother and then her son.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:24PM
Friday, February 27, 2015

Review: ‘Social Security,’ the Heroic Poetry of Solitude by Ben Brantley

In Christina Masciotti’s play at the Bushwick Starr, a retired Pennsylvania pretzel-factory worker talks just to hear herself talk, even though she’s deaf.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:52PM
Thursday, February 26, 2015

Theater Review: Review: ‘An Octoroon,’ a Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Comedy About Race by Ben Brantley

This coruscating play, restaged at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, is a modern examination of a slave-era melodrama.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Review: Jennifer Haley’s ‘The Nether’ Explores the Dark Side of the Web by Ben Brantley

In this futuristic drama, visitors to an online destination act out their depraved fantasies.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM

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