Ben Brantley News

Jim Simpson, Artistic Director and Carol Ostrow, Producing Director of The Flea Theater announce the groundbreaking on their future home in TriBeCa. A few years back, The Flea purchased a building at 20 Thomas Street, four blocks south of their current location, with seed money from their Board of Directors and State and City funding. Now they have raised 95% of the funds needed to build a brand new state of the art three theater performing arts complex. The new Flea complex will allow them to continue to produce daring and adventurous theater all the while ensuring a permanent and stable home for the off-off-Broadway company. A Groundbreaking Ceremony for the new building project will take place on Thursday, December 5 featuring city officials as well as Flea artists, supporters and invited friends.

Raven Theatre, whose production of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful just finished a successful run, will stage the Chicago premiere of Foote's Dividing the Estate next season. The announcement was made today by Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro, co-Artistic Directors of the company.

The Broadway repertory season of Harold Pinter¹s NO MAN¹S LAND and Samuel Beckett¹s WAITING FOR GODOT opens today, November 24. Starring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley and directed by Sean Mathias, this limited engagement repertory season plays through Sunday, March 2 at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street).

The producers of the hit comedy Buyer & Cellar have announced that tickets are now on sale through April 13, 2014. The hit comedy, which recouped its initial investment in record time, is currently playing an open-ended run at the Barrow Street Theatre where the play continues to break box office records.

Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of Producing Artistic Director Andre Bishop, presents Bianca Amato, Shirine Babb, John Patrick Doherty, Austin Durant, Richard Easton,Francesca Faridany, Stephanie Fieger, Malcolm Gets, John Glover, Ben Horner, Ruy Iskandar, Brian d'Arcy James, Byron Jennings, Aaron Krohn, Jeremiah Maestas, Christopher McHale, Jonny Orsini,Sam Poon, Triney Sandoval, Nathan Stark, Daniel Sunjata, Patrick Vaill, Tyler Lansing Weaks, Derek Wilson, Ethan Hawke and Anne-Marie Duff in Shakespeare's MACBETH, directed by Jack O'Brien. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Red Bull Theater presents the first-ever Off Broadway revival of Loot by Joe Orton. Red Bull Artistic Director Jesse Berger directs a company that includes Rebecca Brooksher (Fay), Eric Martin Brown (Meadows), Jarlath Conroy (McLeavy), Ryan Garbayo (Dennis), Rocco Sisto (Truscott), and Nick Westrate (Hal). Loot will have scenic design by Narelle Sissons, costume design by Sara Jean Tosetti, lighting design by Scott Zielinski, and sound design by Brad Berridge.

In just five short years, The New Colony has established itself as "one of Chicago's essential off-Loop companies" (Chicago Tribune). Through the premiere of fifteen world premiere plays and musicals, devised through an open, collaborative process, The New Colony has cultivated a diverse audience of theatergoers eager to have a voice in the storytelling.

Broadway legend Bernadette Peters is currently starrng opposite Norm Lewis, Jeremy Jordan and Cyrille Aimee star in Stephen Sondheim and Wynton Marsalis's new musical event A BED AND A CHAIR at City Center, and soon after the run is complete she will hit the road on an international tour. The full tour itinerary is as follows:

Bernadette Peters, Norm Lewis, Jeremy Jordan and Cyrille Aimee star in Stephen Sondheim and Wynton Marsalis's new musical event featuring Sondheim's music arranged and performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra withWynton Marsalis. This Encores! Special Event, directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator John Doyle, with choreography by Parker Esse and musical supervision by David Loud, was conceived by Peter Gethers, Jack Vierteland John Doyle, and opened last night, November 13 at City Center. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Holiday packages include Wicked, War Horse, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and The Book of Mormon, and go on sale to the public today, Monday, November 11 at 10:00 AM.

Uptown Players closes its 2013 season with Paul Rudnick's hysterical comedy, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. The production runs December 5 through 15, 2013, at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

DOMESTICATED opened tonight, November 4, at the Lincoln Center Theater. The new play by Bruce Norris, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, features Vanessa Aspillaga, Mia Barron, Robin De Jesus, Jeff Goldblum, Lizbeth MacKay, Emily Meade, Laurie Metcalf, Mary Beth Peil, Karen Pittman, Aleque Reid and Misha Seo. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Holiday packages include Wicked, War Horse, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and The Book of Mormon, and go on sale to the public Monday, November 11 at 10:00 AM.

This week, Theater Talk focuses on The Vineyard Theatre's acclaimed production of The Landing, the newest work by Tony Award-winning composer John Kander - and his first full collaboration without his late songwriting partner Fred Ebb. In addition to Kander, the guests are the show's librettist/lyricist Greg Pierce, director Walter Bobbie, and star David Hyde Pierce (who is also Greg Pierce's uncle), who talk to Theater Talk co hosts Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins about creating this production. The Landing is an evening of three one-act chamber musicals, each with a twist, and in this interview Theater Talk's guests each share about his role in bringing the inventive show, that Ben Brantley called "an elegantly slender production," to life.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Manhattan Theatre Club and MCC Theater's world premiere of Sharr White's The Snow Geese opens tonight, October 24, at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Let's see what the critics had to say...

Review Roundup: THE LANDING...All The Reviews!

Following a successful engagement at Joe's Pub in New York City, Joey Arias and Kristian Hoffman bring their acclaimed show Lightning Strikes to Feinstein's at the Nikko for one performance only - tonight, October 24 at 8 p.m.