B'way Update: John Lithgow in Giant

John Lithgow and Romola Garai
in Giant in London.
Credit: Manuel Harlan

Tony, Olivier and Emmy winner John Lithgow will return to Broadway for the first time since 2019 in Giant, the play by Mark Rosenblatt in which he starred in London's Royal Court and then the West End. Previews begin March 11, 2026, at a Shubert theater TBA for a limited 16-week run. Lithgow won an Olivier Award for playing author Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) facing a confrontation with his publishers for penning an allegedly anti-Semitic article. The 1983 article voiced Dahl's denunciation of Israel and support for Palestinians during the 1982 Lebanon War. Tony winner Nicholas Hytner directs and Bob Crowley repeats his London designs. The reminder of the cast will be announced at a later date.

"My debut play GIANT was written on spec in my kitchen with no assurance it would ever get produced at all,” said playwright Mark Rosenblatt. “So, to have it premiere at London’s mighty Royal Court Theatre before transferring to the West End was truly life-changing. And now, to open on Broadway, led again by the peerless John Lithgow, is truly the stuff of dreams - I can’t wait to share GIANT and Nick Hytner’s exceptional production with New York audiences.”

 "Being a part of GIANT from its inception has been the most challenging and exciting stage experience of my career,” said John Lithgow. “I play the central character of Roald Dahl, a man of dizzying complexity, on a day of crisis in his life. The story takes place forty years ago, but it resonates powerfully with events of our present day. No play I’ve ever been in has had such an impact on audiences. I am so proud and honored to play this part."

Book Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Found for free in a library sale. This is one of the 100 Books the BBC says you should read before you die, so I figured I could polish it off in a few hours and have a more impressive literary score. I'd seen the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as well as the recent Broadway musical version. Fun and silly, a classic for anyone who loves candy and the innocence of childhood. Dahl skewers bad juvenile habits such as gum-chewing and TV watching. He would have exploded at today's I-phone obsessed kids who make Mike Teavee and Veruca Salt look like Rhodes scholars.