GIANT Previews- Page 5
GIANT Previews
GIANT Previews#100
Posted: 3/26/26 at 2:57am
Play Esq. said: "tater tot said: "Hey guys, i'll be coming to New York in August, this is currently scheduled to close June 28, any chancethis extends?"
Yes. Especially after he wins his Tony. But if you thought prices were high now though…"
Dumb question: Does Best Actor in a Play winner affect the box office all that much? If John Lithgow wins, but the play doesn’t, would that matter? (I don’t even know how much winning Best Play matters.)
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/25/05
GIANT Previews#101
Posted: 3/26/26 at 6:26pm
If it extends, it will almost definitely be for only 2 more weeks
GIANT Previews#102
Posted: 5/4/26 at 6:46am
Giant waste of time-- it starts out anti-semitic- ends anti-semitic-- no growth- no drama- and I really thought it was more like a waste of my time and money.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/27/21
GIANT Previews#103
Posted: 5/4/26 at 9:14am
BWAY Baby2 said: "Giant waste of time-- it starts out anti-semitic- ends anti-semitic-- no growth- no drama- and I really thought it was more like a waste of my time and money."
boy did you miss the point
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
GIANT Previews#104
Posted: 5/4/26 at 11:57am
Historically, only Best Musical has any lasting box office impact.
GIANT Previews#105
Posted: 5/16/26 at 6:35pm
Couldn't find an official 'reviews' thread following search (and apologies if I missed one.)
Saw the play last night, and was a bit disappointed. Lithgow is in top-form, devouring the role of Dahl and very much playing the 'cat toying with a mouse' between charming to monster and back within seconds. And for an 80-year-old, he continues to challenge himself and create new and distinct characters whether on stage or film that blows my mind. He is indeed riveting - it's the play itself that didn't match his stature to me.
I appreciated all of the supporting cast, and liked Aya Cash quite a bit (I know she's gotten a bit of mixed reaction here, and I'm also admittedly a fan of both her stage and screen work) but in pondering the play afterward, I think I would've preferred a 100-minute two hander of Lithgow and the agent with some more tangible stakes. The "art vs. the artist" debate isn't an easy one, but it's worth having; I wish the play was a bit more focused. It was quite literally people entering and leaving the lion's den over and over for 2+ hours, and brought to mind one of the criticism's of Albee's Virginia Woolf - "Why don't they just leave the house?" like every haunted house / horror film.
I consider Hytner to be one of our greatest directors (I'll give a TedTalk on that National Theatre / LCT Carousel anytime someone would like it) - but it really just seemed like he was playing traffic cop here and moving people around a very strange set. All felt very dramatically inert.
Lithgow is always worth seeing (tangent: there's a *wild* genre film The Rule of Jenny Pen I just watched with he and Geoffrey Rush that is a blast). But with so many wonderful offerings and tickets so pricey, I would skip this one unless you end up with a rush or lottery ticket, which I was fortunate to get.
Other notes:
- Lottery seats were far side Orchestra Row G 17/19 - beyond missing about 30 seconds of stage-right entrances, they were wonderful seats and everything is blocked so center that I'm certain even an officially marked 'partial view' seat upstairs or down would be a fine experience.
- Stage door was busy but warm and friendly - most everyone came out quite quickly and chatted / signed. Lithgow didn't sign or do selfies, but walked the line + posed for pictures of him, taking in much deserved praise and chatting with folks. Total class act.
GIANT Previews#106
Posted: 5/17/26 at 10:28pm
this started off very slow (from the front mezz, it was hard to hear any of them including Lithgow) and even as it picked up steam, i found myself thinking how is this a whole play? how can this be turned into a full 2.5 hour drama?
but where I thought Act 2 could go nowhere, I thought it landed beautifully. i give alot of credit to Aya Cash, who I thought was truly remarkable---crafting the paradigm of the Exhausted Jew, who is so sick and tired of having to defend governments and overaggression and being too passive and being too wealthy and being too poor all at the same time. Her Act 1 Moment could have been shrill, but it was poignant.
Lithgow is a marvel--I thought in Act 1 he was hard to hear, so alot of his throwaway nastiness was lost on me. But once he got going, he created a monster dripping with charm, and then let the mask fall further, showing us the sort of madness of a bigot. His Dahl seems familiar to us, and its a credit to Lithgow how badly we want to forgive or dismiss his racism, until we cant. (And I thought the way we saw the reaction to his Beyond The Pale moment was very touching).
Aside from the fireworks between Cash and Lithgow, the play doesnt have much to do. I agree that Hytner did little work here- having them rotate around a table eating lunch for 2 hours. And while I enjoyed myself overall, its not hard to imagine a must tighter version that doesnt resort to Dahl's fiancee and "house jew" puttering around with little to say (I found Levey underwhelming and would have preferred a much stronger "non Zionist British" prototype).
But the play still works, and not only thanks to Lithgow. It uses Dahl to exemplify how true bigotry based on race/religion is really nothing more paranoid delusion. There are ALOT of Dahls out there these days, on the right and the left.
GIANT Previews#107
Posted: 5/18/26 at 11:17am
PipingHotPiccolo said: "But the play still works, and not only thanks to Lithgow. It uses Dahl to exemplify how true bigotry based on race/religion is really nothing more paranoid delusion. There are ALOT of Dahls out there these days, on the right and the left."
If the anti-Zionism of Rosenblatt and Lithgow's "Dahl" is nothing more than true bigotry and a paranoid delusion there would have been no play. The activating power of the play and also Lithgow's performance is that there is a vein of compassion running through Dahl's bigotry.
GIANT Previews#108
Posted: 5/19/26 at 11:00am
The production has recouped its 5.6 mil capitalization, 10 weeks into its 16 week run.
Kind of surprised it recouped even faster than Every Brilliant Thing and had a slightly smaller capitalization.
GIANT Previews#109
Posted: 6/1/26 at 1:43pm
Can anyone speak to the view from row H house right partial view? Got them in the lotto and the view from viewfrommyseat has me a little worried.
Featured Actor Joined: 1/8/24
GIANT Previews#110
Posted: 6/1/26 at 10:04pm
BoringBoredBoard40 said: "BWAY Baby2 said: "Giant waste of time-- it starts out anti-semitic- ends anti-semitic-- no growth- no drama- and I really thought it was more like a waste of my time and money."
boy did you miss the point"
yes
the point is to satisfy the woke mob
who looked the other way on oct 7 2023
but then got upset over gaza casualties
and illegally disrupted propaganda schools
otherwise known as american universities
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
GIANT Previews#111
Posted: 6/1/26 at 10:08pm
Give it a rest, MAGAt. You must have been so happy today with them honoring Derek Chauvin for the violent murder of George Floyd tho!
GIANT Previews#112
Posted: 6/1/26 at 10:18pm
there are definitely some people here who have missed the point---parroting the same "antizionism" that is clearly a cover for antisemitism that the play addresses-- but im lost as to how this piece was meant to satisfy a woke anti israel mob?
Lithgow's Dahl is a pleasant but dangerous monster, who spews venom at Israel (some of reasonable) but clearly and unambiguously hates Jewish people, regardless of their affiliation with the Israeli government. The play ends with his VERBATIM statements about how Hitler's genocide of the Jews makes a sort of sense to him.
Anyone who walked out thinking the play is "woke" or insufficiently disgusted with antisemitism, missed the point just as much as those who left nodding along to Dahl's vitriol.
GIANT Previews#113
Posted: 6/3/26 at 9:30am
PipingHotPiccolo said: "there are definitely some people here who have missed the point---parroting the same "antizionism" that is clearly a cover for antisemitism that the play addresses-- but im lost as to how this piece was meant to satisfy a woke anti israel mob?
Lithgow's Dahl is a pleasant but dangerous monster, who spews venom at Israel (some of reasonable) but clearly and unambiguously hates Jewish people, regardless of their affiliation with the Israeli government. The play ends with his VERBATIM statements about how Hitler's genocide of the Jews makes a sort of sense to him.
Anyone who walked out thinking the play is "woke" or insufficiently disgusted with antisemitism, missed the point just as much as those who left nodding along to Dahl's vitriol."
Or the play is well written enough to encompass multiple points of view in its debate about Israel, even operating through its bigoted main character. Lithgow and Rosenblatt's "Dahl" sees himself as a defender of children, of innocents, and perhaps a victimized child himself. Israel to him is the ultimate bullying adult. That belief coexists within him with a visceral fear and hatred of Jews. It's a complex portrait and a complex moment in Jewish diasporic history. The play isn't perfect but it attempts to address this troubling moment as no other contemporary commercial play has.
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