Ben Brantley | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1954-10-26)October 26, 1954 (age 71) Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Education | Swarthmore College |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1975–present |
Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher, and writer. He served as the chief theater critic forThe New York Times from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 to 2020.
Born inDurham, North Carolina on October 26, 1954, Brantley received a Bachelor of Arts inEnglish fromSwarthmore College inPennsylvania, graduating in 1977, and is a member ofPhi Beta Kappa society.[1][2]
Brantley began his journalism career as a summer intern at theWinston-Salem Sentinel and, in 1975, became an editorial assistant atThe Village Voice. AtWomen's Wear Daily, he was a reporter and then editor from 1978 to 1983, and later became the European editor, publisher, and Paris bureau chief until June 1985.[1]
For the next 18 months, Brantley freelanced, writing regularly forElle,Vanity Fair, andThe New Yorker before joiningThe New York Times as a Drama Critic (August 1993). He was elevated to Chief Theater Critic three years later.[1]
Brantley is the editor ofThe New York Times Book of Broadway: On the Aisle for the Unforgettable Plays of the Last Century, a compilation of 125 reviews published bySt. Martin's Press in 2001. He received theGeorge Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 1996-1997.[1] He was the inspiration for the website DidHeLikeIt.com, which used a "Ben-Ometer" to translateNew York Times reviews into ratings.[3] It expanded to becomeDid They Like It?, anaggregator for Broadway reviews from other major publications.[4]
Brantley has been dubbed a "celebrity underminer."[5] In an article inThe New York Times, published on January 3, 2010, he expressed his ambivalence about the "unprecedented heights" of "star worship on Broadway during the past 10 years."[6]
After a review of a 2014 production ofOf Mice and Men, lead actor James Franco posted a later-deleted screed on Instagram calling Brantley a "little bitch."[7] Alec Baldwin publicly criticized the critic the previous year after a negative review of his playOrphans, wherein he called Brantley an "odd, shriveled, bitter Dickensian clerk," and claimed the critic unduly dismissed Baldwin's work, comparing it to criticJohn Simon's infamous review of teenage actorAmanda Plummer performance in the play Artichoke as "Shirley Temple doing Boris Karloff."[8][9]
In June 2017, Pulitzer Prize winning playwrightsLynn Nottage andPaula Vogel publicly criticized Brantley onTwitter following his lukewarm reviews of their respective Broadway debuts.[10] Vogel blamed Brantley andTimes co-chief critic Jesse Green for the early closure of her playIndecent and for boosting plays by straight white male playwrights likeLucas Hnath andJ.T. Rogers, who had received positive reviews from Brantley and later won theTony Award for Best Play that year.[11][12] Nottage reposted Vogel's tweet and wrote that Brantley and Green reflected "patriarchy flexing their muscles."[13]
In 2018, Brantley was criticized for his review of the musicalHead Over Heels, which contained comments about the play's principal character, played by drag queenPeppermint, that were seen astransphobic.[14][15] TheTimes subsequently edited the review and Brantley issued an apology, writing that he had tried to "reflect the light tone of the show", but his remarks instead came off as "more flippant than I would have ever intended".[16]
Brantley retired from his position as the paper's co-chief theatre critic in 2020, but continued to contribute columns afterward.[17]
Brantley, who is gay, lives in New York City.[18][19]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
