Broadway is about to get uncomfortable. Giant, the Olivier Award-winning drama starring John Lithgow as beloved children’s author Roald Dahl, jumps the pond this spring. But don’t expect riffs on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or James and the Giant Peach. Instead, playwright Mark Rosenblatt’s debut play addresses the moral complexity that is more relevant than ever to our current cultural moment.
Why John Lithgow’s Dahl demands our attention
Written during our ongoing reckoning with artists and their legacies (even Broadway belle Kristin Chenoweth, who’s in rehearsal for The Queen of Versailles, got caught in the maelstrom after responding publicly to Charlie Kirk’s murder), Giant forces audiences to grapple with how we separate art from artist. Can we still love the children’s book author while confronting Dahl’s documented antisemitic statements? This isn’t abstract philosophy: it’s the messy reality of hero worship in 2026.
Lithgow, returning to Broadway after five years, delivers what critics are calling his career-defining performance. Playing Dahl on “a day of crisis,” the two-time Tony winner navigates the author’s “dizzying complexity,” saying, “No play I’ve ever been in has had such an impact on audiences.”
After sweeping three Olivier Awards and selling out both the Royal Court and West End, Giant arrives as a challenging, conversation-starting theater that Broadway rarely sees.
Giant will play for 16 weeks, with performances beginning on March 11, 2026, at a Shubert theatre to be announced.
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