Ben Brantley was the chief theater critic of The New York Times for more than 20 years. He wrote more than 2,500 reviews over 27 years beginning in 1993, filing regularly from London as well as New York. He retired from regular reviewing in 2020.
Before joining The Times, Mr. Brantley was a staff writer for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He reviewed fashion for Women’s Wear Daily, where he was the Paris bureau chief and European editor; and reviewed movies for Elle magazine.
Mr. Brantley grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., and graduated from Swarthmore College. He is the editor of two books of New York Times theater reviews and a recipient of the George Jean Nathan Award for theater criticism.
New York theater’s elder statesman of the avant-garde brings “Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey” to the stage, his first new work in over a decade.
By Ben Brantley
In her various incarnations, the “Gypsy” character is always loud, always scary, but so different. Ben Brantley reflects on all the onstage Roses he has known.
By Ben Brantley
The longtime friends are appearing together in the new Broadway play “The Roommate.” Everything you think you know about them may be wrong.
By Ben Brantley
Sondheim has been canonized, with revivals and revues everywhere. It’s a development he might have greeted with deep ambivalence.
By Ben Brantley
This was featured in live coverage.
By Ben Brantley
In his fond memoir “Making It So,” the actor traces the path from the working class to the Shakespearean stage to “Star Trek” superstardom.
By Ben Brantley
The actor conveyed the gravitational force of mortality, tugging the men he played so commandingly toward a void beyond meaning, our critic writes.
By Ben Brantley
Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe are the heart of the tear-streaked “Merrily We Roll Along” Broadway revival.
By Ben Brantley
“Leading Lady,” a mosaic of reminiscence and self-analysis, explores the ascent of a man who’s really good at playing women.
By Ben Brantley
“I had been prepared to be awed, intimidated, even terrified,” Ben Brantley writes of meeting the actress in person five years ago.
By Ben Brantley