Theater Review: John Lithgow is a Towering Triumph in ‘Giant’

Giant

Roald Dahl, the beloved British children’s author and poet, has sold more than 300 million books world wide. He has been called “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century.” Dahl was also a self-proclaimed antisemite. The seeming contradictions in Dahl’s persona turn Giant by Mark Rosenblatt into thrilling, dynamic and controversial theater. Insightfully directed by Nichols Hytner, designed by Bob Crowley, the Broadway premiere of Giant follows a successful West End run and is in a limited engagement at the Music Box Theatre until June 28, 2026.

Rosenblatt’s slippery play takes place in 1983 in the deconstructed living room of Dahl’s English family home during a summer afternoon. Workers renovating upstairs assault the quiet with loud bangs. The living room is awash in plastic curtains, boxes, and a table and chairs. The cacophony drives John Lithgow’s Dahl up the wall as he discusses the final draft of his latest children’s book, Witches, with Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey). Tom, the managing director of his British publisher, counters Dahl’s complaints with cheerfulness and irony.

Lithgow as Dahl

John Lithgow is terrific as the children’s author responsible for Mathilde and James and the Giant Peach. The script painstakingly constructs Dahl’s direct, intrusive style. He listens to every word he hears and humorously spits out whiplash retorts, seeming to find fun in provocative wordplay and argument.

Lithgow has gotten inside the skin of Dahl and walks in his shoes comfortably. He reveals Dahl’s steeltrap mind and prickly personality, a minefield to navigate with eyes open. His adversary, Mrs. Jessie Stone (Aya Cash), discovers by the play’s end that his dark playfulness should not be underestimated as silly or childish. Indeed, his actions reveal intention. His demeanor may be dismissed as egotistical and inflexible, but it can also be described as heroically adamantine about his convictions, however wrong-headed one may think them. On closer investigation Dahl is the giant who should not be self-righteously challenged. But if responded to with grace, his generous, sensitive heart emerges.

“Managing” Dahl

Tom and Dahl’s fiancée Liccy (Rachael Stirling) smartly counsel him on a day of aches and loud banging requires his subtle management. Grumbling about sharing royalties, Dahl waits for Jessie Stone, the sales representative from his American publisher. She visits to a scandalous review Dahl wrote that provoked a death threat. The book Dahl reviewed was God Cried by Catherine Leroy and Tony Clifton. It concerns the 1982 siege of Beirut, Lebanon where Israeli soldiers killed 22,000, mostly Lebanese women and children.

An RAF fighter pilot who shot down German Junker 88s during WWII, Dahl dismisses the death threat because “genuinely violent people don’t call beforehand.” Still, because of Liccy’s concern he keeps on duty a hired policeman to protect his family.

The Trouble Dahl Causes for Himself

Gradually, we learn of the trouble Dahl caused for himself as Liccy and Tom discuss how to “make the stink go away.” Liccy quotes the Spectator‘s Paul Johnson, who said the review was “The most disgraceful thing to be written in the English language for a very long time.” Will antisemitic comments tank his reputation and book sales without an apology?

Jessie’s mission to explain the negative fallout in the United States and get Dahl to disavow his opinions seems easy enough. Bu she arrives before Tom can debrief her. Her nervousness shows. Importantly, the publishers don’t want Dahl’s scathing review to sink the company’s profitability and mar the launch of Witches. Jessie’s good will must inspire Dahl to ameliorate the “stench.”

Antagonism Grows

When Dahl asks if she’s Jewish, Liccy gently chides him. However, Jessie’s answer about her name change from Stein to Stone helps Dahl proceed because he notes she feels attacked. A cut-out of his review with her accusatory notes scribbled on it falls out of her son’s book that she wished him to autograph. Each provokes the other.

Rosenblatt sets up the mounting drama conveniently. Tensions heighten. Jessie backs Dahl into a corner and the celebrated author reacts defensively. In a private moment Tom criticizes Jessie for not “managing” Dahl. If only she had returned Tom’s call so he might have debriefed her about how to best conduct the meeting which now crashes and burns.

Cash and Lithgow Are Electrifying as Adversaries

Dahl feels justified in condemning Israel for its heartless massacre. His review states, “Never before in the history of man has a race of people switched so rapidly from being much pitied victims to barbarous murderers.”

But by the end of Act I Jessie counters him with forceful righteousness. Not only was Israel’s response to Lebanon’s attack self-defense, she says, Dahl shouldn’t blame all Jews for the actions of Israeli soldiers. Indeed, 400,000 Israeli citizens condemned the attacks, “protested Sharon, and the Supreme Court forced him out of the army.” The audience responded to Cash’s Jessie with applause and cheers the night I saw the play.

Will Dahl Change?

In Act 2, Tom’s induces Jessie to apologize. Interestingly, here Dahl’s uncertainty is clarified. He considers changing his perspective. Attempts by Tom and Liccy soften him. When Liccy says his antisemitic comments may inhibit his investiture, Dahl hesitates.

Further insights into Dahl’s character come in a conversation with his gardener Wally (David Manis), revealing a kind, loving individual. Wally counsels him not to bow to others’ opinions. But in her last conversation with Dahl, Jessie cannot resist provoking him which leads to more controversy.

Unwittingly, she discloses a “white lie” that pushes Dahl over the edge. He sees what he now must do in a final response to the press in remarks which he will never take back. He proclaims his antisemitism with a caveat that is easily overlooked because he mentions Hitler.

How and why he responds as he does to Jessie clues us in to his identity. Depending upon how one perceives the portrayal of events, Rosenblatt’s alignment of Dahl with a giant found in his stories may be interpreted a number of ways in this memorable, wonderfully acted, tragically current play.

Giant runs through June 28 at the Music Box Theater.