The Stage

New York theatre critic Clive Barnes dies

Published Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 17:35 by Alistair Smith

Long-serving Stage columnist and legendary New York theatre and dance critic Clive Barnes has died, aged 81, after a battle with cancer.

Born in London in 1927, Barnes was dance critic for both The Times and The Spectator, before moving to the US, where he served as dance and theatre critic for the New York Times and then the New York Post. He also continued to write for UK publications, including The Stage, for which he has written a column on Broadway theatre for the last two decades.

Barnes was an author of numerous theatre and dance books. These include four volumes of 50 Best Plays of the American Theatre, nine series of Best American Plays (with John Gassner), American Ballet Theatre: A 25 Year Retrospective (with Elizabeth Kaye), Masters of Movement: Portraits of America’s Great Choreographers (with Rose Eichenbaum), Ballet in Britain Since the War, Frederick Ashton and his Ballets, New York Times Directory of the Theater, Ballet Here and Now, Dance Scene USA, Inside American Ballet Theatre, as well as biographies of Tennessee Williams and Rudolf Nureyev.

He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1975 and was married four times. He died from complications of liver cancer on November 19, 2008.

A full obituary will be included in a future edition of The Stage.