The New York Times Book of Broadway. Edited by Ben Brantley. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001; pp. 268. $35 hardcover.

Extract

In his introduction to this very interesting collection of reviews from the New York Times, Ben Brantley says that he and theatre critic Peter Marks faced great difficulty selecting 125 productions to constitute the 125 “unforgettable plays” of the twentieth century. They “focused not only on the intrinsic merits of the work reviewed, but also on its historical context and the degree to which it engages the critic” (xviii). They also limited themselves (by choice, one assumes) to daily reviews, “passing over the longer and more contemplative pieces that appeared in the Sunday paper” (xix), a decision that surely eliminated at least some reviews that have had the most impact and revealed the most mature appreciations of O'Neill, Odets, Albee, August Wilson, and others.