William Benedict Herbert Nightingale (born 14 May 1939) is a British journalist, formerly a regular theatre critic for The Times newspaper.

His first published theatre review was for the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser in 1957, a production of Look Back in Anger by a local amateur group.

His diary of the period was first published by Times Books in 1986 as Fifth Row Center: A Critic's Year On and Off Broadway.

[2] He was appointed chief theatre critic for The Times in London in 1990, in succession to Irving Wardle.

This, its consequences and Nightingale's career as a critic were discussed by Mark Shenton in his 26 January 2010 theatre blog for The Stage.