{"id":898765,"date":"2026-04-12T13:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/giant-review-john-lithgow-is-superb-as-roald-dahl-in-show-about-his-revolting-anti-semitism\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T13:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:20:19","slug":"giant-review-john-lithgow-is-superb-as-roald-dahl-in-show-about-his-revolting-anti-semitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/giant-review-john-lithgow-is-superb-as-roald-dahl-in-show-about-his-revolting-anti-semitism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Giant\u2019 review: John Lithgow is superb as Roald Dahl in show about his revolting anti-Semitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music <\/p>\n

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A couple of words are nowhere to be found in the title of the new Broadway play \u201cGiant,\u201d about children\u2019s author Roald Dahl \u2014 namely \u201cfriendly\u201d and \u201cpeach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n


\n\t\t\tTheater review\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Music
\n\t\t\tGIANT\t\t<\/h2>\n

2 hours and 15 minutes, with one intermission. At the Music Box Theatre.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

By the bitter end, it\u2019s clear why. Because this Dahl, viciously played by the superb John Lithgow, is no peach. A peach pit, more like.<\/p>\n

Mark Rosenblatt\u2019s meaty debate-drama, which opened Monday night at the Music Box Theatre, shows a much uglier side of the clever mind behind \u201cMatilda,\u201d \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,\u201d \u201cThe BFG [Big Friendly Giant]\u201d and \u201cJames and the Giant Peach\u201d: that he was a raging, self-described antisemite.<\/p>\n

Directed by Nick Hytner, \u201cGiant\u201d fictionalizes, sometimes joltingly, the dangerous moment in the 1980s when the literary titan, whose books are touchstones of childhoods the world over, threw his bigotry out into the open and faced the consequences.<\/p>\n

Staunch Dahl bets he\u2019s too gigantic to fail.<\/p>\n

His petrified employers and future wife Felicity (Rachael Stirling) aren\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n

The real event that rocked Roald was a controversial 1983 book review he wrote of \u201cGod Cried,\u201d a work harshly critical of Israel\u2019s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

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\"music<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

John Lithgow plays author Roald Dahl in \u201cGiant\u201d on Broadway. Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his write-up, Dahl called all Jews \u201ca race of people\u201d who\u2019d \u201cswitched so rapidly from victims to barbarous murderers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He conflated the government of Israel with the global Jewish population and compared the Middle Eastern country to Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

Dahl then deplorably doubled down in a follow-up interview with the New Statesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a reason why \u2018anti-anything\u2019 crops up anywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cEven a stinker like Hitler didn\u2019t just pick on them for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audience members new to this shocking information can\u2019t help but think:\u00a0This is the same guy who dreamed up Matilda Wormwood and the chocolate river?!<\/em><\/p>\n

In a word: Yes.<\/p>\n

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Jessie (Aya Cash), a representative for Dahl\u2019s publisher, comes to England to do damage control. Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coming in hot, Rosenblatt imagines a contentious emergency visit from a representative of Dahl\u2019s New York publisher, the made-up Jessie Stone (Aya Cash), to his under-construction\u00a0English\u00a0country house to address the backlash, which has led\u00a0several\u00a0US booksellers to threaten not to carry Dahl\u2019s forthcoming \u201cThe Witches.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wants an apology, full stop. However, the 66-year-old author is unmovable.<\/p>\n

Refereeing the bout is his UK publisher Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey), who considers himself more English than Jewish. He\u2019s chummy with Roald and believes his writer\u2019s contributions to kids\u2019 reading are too important to jeopardize. Many probably would still agree.<\/p>\n

Beyond the actor playing the creator of \u201cThe BFG,\u201d it\u2019s Levey who\u2019s the MVP. Anybody who\u2019s ever tried to bring down the temperature of a room while ignoring their own boiling fury within will\u00a0vividly\u00a0see themselves in Tom.<\/p>\n

And Tom has a truly unenviable job as peacemaker\u00a0here.<\/p>\n

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\"music<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

The play\u2019s arguments both for and against Israel are ripped from the headlines. Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGiant\u201d uses the\u00a0past to talk about Israel today, and the spats are\u00a0expectedly\u00a0heated and palpably uncomfortable. But newsiness wasn\u2019t Rosenblatt\u2019s intent. He finished his final draft two months before the\u00a0Hamas\u00a0attacks of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Whatever the date, the arguments are all but ripped from the headlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael invaded Lebanon in self-defense,\u201d Jessie\u00a0maintains. \u201cWhat would your government do if militants constitutionally committed to wiping Britain off the map started firing rockets into Kent from the French coast?\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Dahl of Israel\u2019s founding: \u201cThey laid claim, they maneuvered and they took \u2026 Because you see what you need to see: a sanctuary \u2014 not another\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the confrontational play\u00a0rumbles on,\u00a0Dahl\u2019s\u00a0commonplace talking points\u00a0queasily\u00a0deteriorate.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0becomes an object lesson in how anti-Israel rhetoric can casually slide into full-throated, unapologetic racism.<\/p>\n

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\"music<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

As the play goes on, Dahl\u2019s comments get uglier and uglier. Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, frankly,\u00a0\u201cGiant\u201d\u00a0depicts\u00a0how easily the public will shrug at\u00a0that. Dahl\u2019s confidence about his legacy was proven correct, after all. The 1990 \u201cWitches\u201d film, \u201cMatilda the Musical\u201d on Broadway, Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cBFG\u201d and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Johnny Depp\u2019s Willy Wonka movies all came along after his grotesque comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most people know nothing about any of this, which is why Rosenblatt\u2019s play from London has been a hot topic.<\/p>\n

His first act is tight, focused and exciting. When we return from intermission, though, the bickering\u00a0continues\u00a0and the story feels stuck\u00a0in place. Characters change, I suppose. Felicity, Tom and New Zealand maid Hallie (Stella Everett) go from tolerating him to tolerating him less.\u00a0A messy afternoon turns messier. Yet \u201cGiant\u201d comes to its inevitable conclusions half an hour or more before the bows.<\/p>\n

The appeal, therefore, lies not so much in the\u00a0end\u00a0destination as watching an actor of this caliber inhabit a figure so complex and thorny.<\/p>\n

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\"music<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

Lithgow bears a striking resemblance to his character. Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How to make an often cruel man who casually spews repugnant remarks watchable? Call Lithgow!<\/p>\n

First off, the towering, 80-year-old Tony winner bears a striking resemblance to the man, right out of the box. But it\u2019s Lithgow\u2019s ability to be quiet and sweet and seconds later booming and scary that makes us squirm in our seats over our own feelings toward the writer. At times, we really\u00a0do\u00a0like him. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s well-rounded, seismic Roald will be on the defensive, weaponizing his over-6-foot frame, massive intellect and huge temper. All giant, indeed. And right away he\u2019ll snap into a kindhearted old man \u2014 the nurturing papa who Dahl readers dream is behind the prose.\u00a0A camouflage, perhaps.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that softie who calmly asks the play\u2019s most chilling question.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you no longer read my books to dear Archie?,\u201d he says to Jessie of her son. \u201cIf it\u2019s in me, then it\u2019s surely in the books too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music A couple of words are nowhere to be found in the title of the new Broadway play \u201cGiant,\u201d about children\u2019s author Roald Dahl \u2014 namely \u201cfriendly\u201d and \u201cpeach.\u201d Theater review Music GIANT 2 hours and 15 minutes, with one intermission. At the Music Box Theatre. By the bitter end, it\u2019s clear why. Because this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":898766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-898765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}