Mar 23, 2026 8:00pm PT

‘Giant’ Broadway Review: John Lithgow as a Venomous Roald Dahl Animates a Staggering Production

Daniel D'Addario

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Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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Watching “Giant,” opening March 23 on Broadway after a much-hailed run on London’s West End, one is left with little wonder how its protagonist, Roald Dahl, achieved such success as a writer for children. The child within him is ever-present — in control of what is perhaps only technically an adult man.

As played by John Lithgow, Dahl is an intimidating physical presence, and, as if on the playground, uses this looming quality, along with a facility for language, to intimidate anyone around him. He’s being questioned, over a turbulent afternoon, about a book review he wrote about an account of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon; his language, conflating Judaism with Zionism, was intemperate at best, and seems to both his British publisher Tom Maschler (Elliot Levey) and to Jessie Stone (Aya Cash), a representative from his American publisher, to tip into antisemitism.

'Giant' Broadway Review: John Lithgow as a Venomous Roald Dahl Animates a Staggering Production