“Giant” at The Music Box (Photo: Joan Marcus)
Since I saw Giant at the Royal Court a year and a half ago, I have been waiting – impatiently – for its New York transfer, telling everyone who will listen how excellent it is. The day has finally come and Mark Rosenblatt’s play is open at The Music Box on Broadway with just as much fiery debate and slightly more breathing room around its lunchtime tête-à-tête. At its center, the inimitable John Lithgow sparkles, then spits in a titanic performance for the ages.
Rosenblatt draws on details from Roald Dahl’s life to create a speculative afternoon in 1983, one of the most defining moments of the author’s life. Having recently published a book review calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, Dahl’s editor and an American emissary descend upon his Gipsy House in crisis mode. Dahl (Lithgow) and his fiancée, Felicity (Rachael Stirling), have received a threatening phone call in the aftermath of Dahl’s review and there is a policeman stationed at the door. But British publisher Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey) and American sales director Jessie Stone (Aya Cash) bring something perhaps more threatening to his threshold.
A Jewish bookseller, a Holocaust survivor, has written to Farrar, Straus and Giroux to say that, in light of the book review’s position, he will no longer be carrying Dahl’s books. But it’s not just one shop in upstate New York, this bookseller represents a large network of shops that could mean potential catastrophe for Dahl’s career, and for his ongoing relationship with FSG. Tom and Jessie plead with Dahl to make a statement, to do damage control. Instead, Dahl lets his cleverness get the best of him and goes on the attack.
Rosenblatt crafts a character full of sharp conflict – not for himself, he’s pretty certain he’s in the right – but for the other characters and for the audience. Although set over forty years ago, the play rings with timely debate. Dahl is against Israel in response to the Israeli-Lebanese and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, but he is also virulently anti-Semitic, thinking about and describing Jews in a number of alarming stereotypes. Rosenblatt’s complex characterization allows the audience to see Dahl however they want: for the Zionists in the audience, he’s purely despicable and the play still works. For the rest, there are more sides to it. Dahl can be right about some things, while still being a disgusting racist and an outright bully.
But the genius of Giant is in how Rosenblatt and Lithgow establish Dahl as a charming curmudgeon with a deadly wit. Sure he’s full of landmines, but he’s very funny. Lithgow employs the same kind of natural charisma that made his run as the Trinity Killer on Dexter so terrifying. It’s also there in his portrayal of Lucas Sergeant in All That Jazz. Below the intellectual aesthete is something menacing. Nobody has that quite like Lithgow, which makes this a perfect match of actor and part.
Director Nicholas Hytner’s production is set amidst the major renovation of Gipsy House in Bob Crowley’s construction-site sitting room. The dismantling of the house is an outward representation of Dahl’s own dismantling – both of which are driving him to intense frustration. Rosenblatt’s play unfolds in real time and Hytner’s expert sense of pacing and drama allow the conversation to ebb and flow, and avalanche, exactly when needed. The larger stage at The Music Box gives more room for Dahl’s words to hang in the air. It’s almost like you can see them leaving his mouth and slamming into his guests. Anna Watson’s lighting brings in the British summer heat, subtly making everyone a little warm around the collar.
Giant perfectly speaks to the moment while telling a story from decades in the past. It is a reminder of how long this conversation has been had, and how long it will likely continue. Rosenblatt’s play is crisp and, despite its talky nature around political topics, never anything less than captivating. Lithgow has further cemented his place in the pantheon of Great Actors and has the audience rapt from the start. It is a must-see-and-must-discuss play, and a must-applaud production.