Theater Review | 'La Bête': Making Chaos Rhyme With Class, Er, Gas by Ben Brantley

Mark Rylance brings polished crudeness to the Broadway revival of “La Bête.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'The Red Shoes': Dance-Struck Little Girls: Run! Run in Horror! by Ben Brantley

The Kneehigh Theater’s adaptation of “The Red Shoes” presents a raw view of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'Me, Myself & I': I Know You Are, but What Am I, and Who Is He? by Ben Brantley

The saggy production of Edward Albee’s larky comedy of ideas “Me, Myself & I” at Playwrights Horizons reminds us that plays can sometimes lose their sense of purpose.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review: In Far Over Their Heads: Life at the Pool’s Bottom by Ben Brantley

“Penelope,” from the Druid Theater, tells the story of the men trying to woo the title character after her husband, Odysseus, goes off to the Trojan War.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: Speaking the Same Language by Ben Brantley

Why good productions of Shakespeare and Pinter require actors to speak the same language.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ArtsBeat: London Theater Journal: Punished By Fame by Ben Brantley

The wages of celebrity are being assessed all over London in productions that should give weighty pause to those who would be stars.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | ‘Frankenstein’: It’s (Gasp!) Alive, Not to Mention Peeved by Ben Brantley

Mary Shelley’s monster is birthed onstage in London by the Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, who has a keen sense of the trappings of life in this world.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'Wings': The Shadows of an Airborne Life by Ben Brantley

In the Second Stage Theater’s revival of Arthur Kopit’s “Wings,” Jan Maxwell plays a woman whose perceptions are splintered after a stroke.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: When Shakespeare's Comedies Draw Tears by Ben Brantley

Sometimes it’s hard not to tear up during Shakespeare’s comedies.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Talkback: When Shakespeare's Comedies Draw Tears by Ben Brantley

Commentary on suddenly tearing up during scenes in Shakespeare's comedies

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'Compulsion': The Young Girl Pulls the Strings in This Relationship by Ben Brantley

In “Compulsion,” a dynamic Mandy Patinkin meets his match in a puppet version of Anne Frank.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'Diary of a Madman': Send in the Russian Clown and His Pain and Alienation, Too by Ben Brantley

Geoffrey Rush, who plays the title character in Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, reminds us that it’s a fine, fine line that divides …

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Reasonable Discourse After a Child Is Murdered. Is That Reasonable? by Ben Brantley

Author: Bryony Lavery
Producers: MCC Theater, Robert Lupone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, John G. Schultz, Hal Newman, Zollo/Paleologos and Jeffrey Sine, Roy Gabay, Lorie Cowen Levy and Beth Smith, Peggy Hill, Thompson H. Rogers, Swinsky/Filerman/Hendel, Sirkin/Mills/Baldassare, Darren Bagert

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Here Lies the Ruin of a Love by Ben Brantley

Author: William Nicholson
Producers: Susan Quint Gallin, Stuart Thompson, Ron Kastner, True Love Productions, Mary Lu Roffe, Jam Theatricals

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Flash of 70's Sequins by Ben Brantley

Producers: Ben Gannon, Robert Fox

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

A Tough, Sad Maid Comes to Broadway by Ben Brantley

Producers: Carole Shorenstein Hays, HBO Films, Jujamcyn Theaters, Freddy DeMann, Scott Rudin, Hendel/Morten/Wiesenfeld, Bergére/Fox Theatricals/Manocherian, Roger Berlind, Clear Channel Ent…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review: With Her, It’s Love at First Sound by Ben Brantley

Kelli O’Hara plays the big-hearted telephone operator in a revival of “Bells Are Ringing.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

There's Trouble in Emerald City by Ben Brantley

Producers: Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt, David Stone

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

An Audience Visits With Hedda Gabler at Home, a Real Home by Ben Brantley

A site-specific production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is performed for an audience of two dozen in an East Village town house.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater Review | 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown': Here’s Your Valium, What’s Your Hurry? by Ben Brantley

The musical adaptation of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” at the Belasco Theater on Broadway, has a serious case of attention deficit disorder.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Odd Brits A-Leaping With Bodies or Brains by Ben Brantley

Producers: Boyett Ostar Productions, Nederlander Presentations Inc., Freddy DeMann, Jean Doumanian, Stephanie McClelland, Arielle Tepper, The National Theatre of Great Britain

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Holiday Gift Guide: Theater Tickets by Ben Brantley

Let some masters of eloquence deliver your holiday message.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Twain's Tale, With Music for the Ear and Eye by Ben Brantley

Producers: Roundabout Theatre Company, Todd Haimes, Ellen Richard, Julia C. Levy, Deaf West Theatre, Ed Waterstreet, Bill O'Brien, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

A Cozy Little McShtetl by Ben Brantley

Producers: James L. Nederlander, Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley, Harbor Entertainment, Terry Allen Kramer, Bob Boyett/Lawrence Horowitz, Clear Channel Entertainment

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Sis, Today the Village, Tomorrow the World by Ben Brantley

Producers: Roger Berlind, Barry and Fran Weissler, Edwin W. Schloss, Allen Spivak, Clear Channel Entertainment, Harvey Weinstein

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑