Ben Brantley, the longtime chief theater critic of the New York Times, announced Thursday that he is stepping down, effective Oct. 15.
Brantley, 65, will have been a New York Times theater critic for some 27 years. Most recently, he has been co-chief critic with Jesse Green, who remains in his job.
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“To get to do what I have done for as long as I have been able to do it seems almost criminal,” Brantley said in a telephone interview Thursday.
He also said that the current crisis and closure of the theaters in New York and across the country had, to some degree, forced his hand.
“If the pandemic hadn’t happened, and I had still been seeing a show every night, I think it would have been too hard for me to leave. You get addicted to it, to the metabolic rhythm of it all. But I have just felt like a superfluous man. And as wonderful as some of the streaming shows are, it never is the same.”
Gilbert Cruz, the culture editor at the Times, praised Brantley’s tenure.
“A love of the art form is important for any critic to possess, and Ben was, and remains, absolutely besotted with the theater,” Cruz told the Tribune. “You could feel it with every piece. He’s had a tremendous run here at the Times and I’m glad he still plans to contribute when theater returns in earnest.”
The Times has yet to announce its future plans but has said it intends to hire a replacement.
Asked if he would miss the power and prominence of the position, Brantley said he would not.
‘You know Cassie’s line in ‘A Chorus Line’?,” he asked, rhetorically. “‘All I ever needed was the music and the mirror.’ That is how I felt about criticism. All I ever needed was the show and the chance to write about it.”
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.