All stories by Ben Brantley on BroadwayStars

Thursday, July 7, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011

Theater Review | 'Three Hotels': Marital Bankruptcy Filed in Faraway Places by Ben Brantley

A revival of Jon Robin Baitz's "Three Hotels" at the Williamstown Theater Festival provides evidence of his gift for translating complicated feelings into a theatrical language that both sin…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:09PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 26, 2011

Theater Review | 'All's Well That Ends Well' : Flawed Man Draws a Good Woman by Ben Brantley

In "All's Well That Ends Well" for Shakespeare in the Park, a good woman loves an unworthy man. Sound familiar?

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:27PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Theater Review | 'Unnatural Acts' : Behind the Closed Doors of Harvard, 91 Years Ago by Ben Brantley

While "Unnatural Acts" is a docudrama, based on real events of 1920, it often has the aroma of a ripe, lurid melodrama of a slightly later vintage.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 19, 2011

Theater Review | 'Side Effects': When Golden Couple Melts Down, Puddles Ensue by Ben Brantley

Joely Richardson and Cotter Smith play a combustible couple in "Side Effects" by Michael Weller at the Lucille Lortel Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 16, 2011

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: What Oscar Can Learn From Tony About How To Put on a Show by Ben Brantley

I would like to thank the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for helping make the Tony Awards watchable again.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:30PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Theater Review | 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark': 1 Radioactive Bite, 8 Legs and 183 Previews by Ben Brantley

The mega-expensive musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" is no longer the ungodly, indecipherable mess it was in February. It's just a bore.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:02PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Theater Review | 'One Arm': Hustler on the Streets, Missing Both a Limb and a Capacity to Feel by Ben Brantley

Moisés Kaufman has adapted a 1944 short story by Tennessee Williams about a hustler.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 6, 2011

Theater Review | 'Through a Glass Darkly': Under Pretty Skin, Madness Lurks by Ben Brantley

Carey Mulligan is a woman facing insanity in a stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's "Through a Glass Darkly."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:06PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 5, 2011

Theater Review | 'Lysistrata Jones': Happy Sweating and Singing by Ben Brantley

"Lysistrata Jones," a new musical by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, is a modern riff on Aristophanes' bawdy comedy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM[SHARE]

Theater Review | 'The Illusion': Phantasmagorical Adventures of a Missing Son by Ben Brantley

This production of "The Illusion," adapted by Tony Kushner from a work by the 17th-century French playwright Pierre Corneille, trafficks in a special, baroque brand of magic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 26, 2011

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: Stage Resuscitation for Career-Challenged Celebrities by Ben Brantley

I am proposing a little list that matches stars in search of redemption with stage roles tailor-made to their particular skills and images.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:16PM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 22, 2011

Theater Review | 'Follies': Broadway Babies' Glory Days by Ben Brantley

As you watch the stars of a Kennedy Center revival of "Follies" put on glittery costumes and make like comics from a Broadway of yore, you realize just why the show is one of the greatest mu…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 12, 2011

On Broadway, Old Friends Walking on Air by Ben Brantley

Two seemingly moribund staples, the musical and the comic drama, have come throbbing back to life.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:19AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 9, 2011

Theater Review | 'By the Way, Meet Vera Stark': A Black Actress Trying to Rise Above a Maid by Ben Brantley

"By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" imagines the back story of one of those talented black actresses seen on 1930s movie screens almost exclusively in the roles of maids, slaves or mammies.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 6, 2011

Theater Review | 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures': Debating Dialectics and Dad's Suicide Plan by Ben Brantley

The long-awaited new play by Tony Kushner is a densely textured portrait of a Brooklyn family losing its (strictly secular) religion.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 5, 2011

Theater Review | 'King Lear': He's a Grumpy Old Man, but Don't Dare Run Away by Ben Brantley

Derek Jacobi helps make Michael Grandage's production of "King Lear" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music a true entertainment.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: The Honorable Tony Kushner by Ben Brantley

An extraordinary, active empathy pervades every one of Tony Kushner's plays, extended even to those who would not appear to be his allies.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:25PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 3, 2011

ArtsBeat: This Time, The Tonys Grow Up and Get It Right by Ben Brantley

The nominations Tuesday confirm that high-quality legitimate dramas are still being written.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:45AM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 28, 2011

Theater Review | 'The People in the Picture': What Bubbie Did During the War by Ben Brantley

Donna Murphy plays an elderly Yiddish actress with a secret from the Holocaust in the Roundabout Theater Company's "People in the Picture.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:05PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Theater Review | 'The Normal Heart': Raw Anguish of the Plague Years by Ben Brantley

"The Normal Heart," Larry Kramer's 1985 play about the AIDS epidemic, comes to Broadway in a revival with a top-notch cast.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 25, 2011

Theater Review | 'The House of Blue Leaves' : A Papal Visit Has Dreamers Dreaming by Ben Brantley

There's little that's transporting in the somber new Broadway revival of John Guare's "House of Blue Leaves."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 22, 2011

Critic's Notebook: Tale of the Iraq War, Still Resonating by Ben Brantley

"Black Watch," a group portrait of Scottish soldiers in Iraq that was first seen here in 2007, returns to St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:56PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 21, 2011

Theater Review: This Blessed Plot, This Trailer, This England by Ben Brantley

Mark Rylance plays a roaring wreck of a hero in "Jerusalem," Jez Butterworth's state-of-the-nation comedy about Britain.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]

ArtsBeat: Theater Talkback: The Curious Case of 'Clybourne Park' by Ben Brantley

New Yorkers will be happy to learn that they can still catch a performance of Bruce Norris's "Clybourne Park," this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for drama, in a much-lauded production in a b…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Theater Review | 'Picked': Actors Live Their Double Lives, Both on the Screen and Off by Ben Brantley

In "Picked," Christopher Shinn's new play, an actor gets the chance to move up to the A-list.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:17PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 18, 2011

Critic's Notebook: From Belarus, Dynamic Drama With Limited Means by Ben Brantley

The Belarus Free Theater, now performing three plays in repertory at La MaMa, should be seen by everyone who wants confirmation of the continuing relevance and vitality of theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:52PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 14, 2011

Theater Review | 'War Horse': A Boy and His Steed, Far From Humane Society by Ben Brantley

"War Horse," the hit London play about the horrors of World War I, and its captivating star come to life at Lincoln Center.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Theater Review | 'Sleep No More': Shakespeare Slept Here, Albeit Fitfully by Ben Brantley

Punchdrunk, a British site-specific theater company, has taken over three abandoned warehouses to enact the sorry sights of the murderous Macbeths' career in a movable orgy titled "Sleep No …

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:21PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 11, 2011

Theater Review | 'The___________ With the Hat': A Love Not at a Loss for Words by Ben Brantley

"The___________ With the Hat," Stephen Adly Guirgis's vibrant and surprisingly serious new comedy, is at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:01PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 10, 2011

'Catch Me if You Can' at Neil Simon Theater - Review - NYTimes.com by Ben Brantley

"Catch Me if You Can," the new Broadway musical by much of the team behind "Hairspray," is full of elaborate deceptions and corkscrew twists, but not many surprises.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off