Giant

John Lithgow who plays Roald Dahl in "Giant" at the Music Box, looks physically very much like the writer that he is playing. He moves about the stage sometimes child-like, other times flashing the bad temper that Dahl was known for. The real life Roald Dahl was an intellect, a soft spoken gentleman who could become irate when talking about world issues, especially the children who have suffered from around the world due to war efforts.The two- and -a -half hour show starts off slow with Dahl (John Lithgow), his fiance Felicity Crosland (Rachael Stirling) and his close confidant, Tom Maschler (Elliott Levey) conversing about his new book about to be released. Writer Mark Rosenblatt tries to introduce the main characters, give some insight into their personalities. The play in the first ten minutes drags but picks up steam nicely when publicist Jessie Stone enters (Aya Cash).

The play focuses on politics at Dahl's home at Gipsy House as it is called in 1983 in a small village in England. The politics in question is the Israeli bombing of children's hospitals in Beirut, Lebanon. Dahl has written a piece condemning Israel, and the Jews in general which starts a row among the literary community. Throughout the play director Nicholas Hytner straddles the temperament of all the actors well. Dahl's fiance who is much younger than he is, tries to protect Dahl from the publishers, the community, and tries to keep his reputation in tack. Where Tom tries to avoid politics at all costs, the main battle of the play is between Jessie Stone and Dahl himself. When it comes down to the issues at hand, both make good points defending their beliefs. It is Felicity and Tom who try to calm as well as deflect the situation at hand that at times tends to get out of control.

Even though this play was written years ago it is earrily topical today. From October 7th to what is happening right now in the Middle East, Rosenblatt brings front and center just how people feel about the war torn Middle East. He tells us in the show to pick a side and the emotion in the dialogue is raw like an open wound. To Dahl, a lover of children, it has become an obsession, one that is front and center in his everyday life. Where "Giant" succeeds is that the writer gives us all sides of the argument. Even though Tom and Jessie are not particularly religious, they still have their Jewish traditions. They both give arguments as to why Israel has the right to exist. Dahl, on the other hand makes a strong case for his beliefs and that is what makes "Giant" such a worthwhile play to see!

In what is shaping up to be a great season (the only stinker was Death of a Salesman), "Giant" and "Fear of 13" which I also saw yesterday were both terrific and a great way to spend the day seeing both of these well written shows with two great leads in them.

"Giant" really picked away at something that people are all talking about even today... Israel's right to exist, the overwhelming use of force against their neighbors, so on and so forth. The writing really drew out the emotion that is front and center today; the play is still relevant even today, maybe more so today.

John Lithgow has performed in 25 plays on stage and is one of the great actors of our time. He gives his usual top notch performance here in "Giant" as well.

#Broadway Bob Massimi, John Lithgow, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Broadway, Fox News, CNN, The Middle East, Dahl, Hollywood.

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