Rage properly channeled can definitely give birth to good even great theater. Disgust, a more passive and distancing emotion, is far less likely to. Would you rush to a play called Look Back in Queasiness?
BEN BRANTLEY
BEN BRANTLEY
Ben Brantley on looks
Ben Brantley12 quotes“Rage properly channeled can definitely give birth to good even great theater. Disgust, a more passive and distancing emotion, is far less likely to. Would you rush to a play called Look Back in Queasiness?”
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More from Ben Brantley
It’s nowhere near as intense as what I imagine an actor experiences backstage, but I feel a fluttering nervousness before a curtain goes up on a play. I mean, any play, anywhere – on Broadway or the Bowery or in a church basement.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley EVERY SINGLE DANCER, SINGER and BAND MEMBER is a BRILLIANT SOLO ARTIST
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley I’ve seen plays that are, objectively, total messes that move me in ways that their tidier brethren do not. That’s the romantic mystery of great theater. Translating this ineffability into printable prose is a challenge that can never be fully met.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley Be prepared to have the breath knocked out of you.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley I have received hostile voice mail messages and e-mails. They are often anonymous, I’m sad to say, as anonymous messages are delivered only by very low forms of human life, in my opinion.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley What Mr. Kaufman and his team are after is less a portrait of any one person than one of the ethos of a place. In the deliberate, simple staging … in which eight radiantly clean-scrubbed performers embody 60 different people against a bare-bones set.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley Laramie’ often brings to mind ‘Our Town,’ the beloved Thornton Wilder study of life, love and death in parochial New Hampshire.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley The cliche was always that ‘everybody’s a critic,’ but it becomes truer every day. Long before reviews appear in the traditional outlets, you can now usually discover – somewhere in the thickets of the Internet – reactions to shows from people who’ve seen them in previews.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley Cyndi Lauper knows how to work a crowd.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley The eternal ambiguity of human motives and memory.
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley THE HOT (AND SERIOUSLY COOL) ENERGY that comes from the musical gospel preached by the title character of FELA! feels as if it could stretch easily to the borders of Manhattan and then across a river or two. There should be dancing in the streets!
Ben BrantleyBen Brantley
Original quotes
From our community writers
I managed to cut myself loose and while there was pain – there weren’t any blood.
Jenny WinbladhJenny Winbladh Free will exist only in a confused mind.
Frode GaslandFrode Gasland If you are true to yourself, you are already a winner.
Alex DanielAlex Daniel You deserve words that remind you of your value.
Saif Ali ManganSaif Ali Mangan Do always wonder about your worth and remind yourself that even roses have their own thorns.
Megan LaoMegan Lao I’m like sugar in the coffee. Stir me and I’ll dissolve into you.
BelaBela Plans have changed. Life looks different. & now we’re all figuring it out as we go.
Tanya GillTanya Gill Be loyal to those loyal to you.
Sonya TeclaiSonya Teclai
Meet the writers
More on looks
I think you choose how you walk through this life. I think if you choose to participate in a paradigm that is looks-based, if you’re an actor, then it can be empowering in some ways, and it can be really limiting in some ways in terms of time and longevity.
Bellamy YoungBellamy Young They say either get right or get left, how about I just go forward and never look back.
Behdad SamiBehdad Sami To me, being Latin is about more than your looks – it’s how you’re brought up.
Bella ThorneBella Thorne Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
Ben JonsonBen Jonson I like clean-cut, very proper, very elegant looks.
Bella ThorneBella Thorne Writing is like a bird-watcher watching for birds: the stories are there: you just have to train yourself to look for them.
Barbara MertzBarbara Mertz I don’t think I know a single woman who knows what she looks like.
Barbara Grizzuti HarrisonBarbara Grizzuti Harrison …don’t ask me why I know what an Edwardian smoking jacket looks like: let’s just say it has something to do with Doctor Who and leave it at that.
Ben AaronovitchBen Aaronovitch