“Giant,” a play about Roald Dahl’s antisemitism starring John Lithgow as the truculent children’s author, was one of the big winners at this year’s Olivier Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys.
The play, which was staged at the Royal Court last year and is transferring to the West End on April 26, took home three awards at Sunday’s ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London: best actor, for Lithgow; best supporting actor for Elliot Levey as a publisher trying to get Dahl to apologize for his statements about Jews; and the coveted best new play award.
For that final prize, “Giant” bested four other titles, including “The Years,” an acclaimed staging of a Frenchwoman’s life (featuring a back-street abortion and late-in-life affair) that is running at the Harold Pinter Theater until April 19.
The success for “Giant” was perhaps unsurprising given how much critics praised its opening run. Clive Davis, in The Times of London, said the “subtle, intelligent and stylishly crafted” drama, written by Mark Rosenblatt and directed by Nicholas Hytner, “deserves to transfer to a bigger stage.” (Lithgow has said in interviews that he wants to take the play to Broadway.)
Houman Barekat in a review for The New York Times said that Lithgow was “superb as the beleaguered but unrepentant writer, blending affable, avuncular esprit with scowling, cranky prickliness and nonchalant cruelty.
Two other productions also won three awards: A revival of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the much-loved 1964 musical, which ran at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theater last year; and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a folk-rock adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who ages in reverse.
“Fiddler on the Roof,” which is transferring to London’s Barbican in May, won the best musical revival prize among other awards. Its competitors were a production of “Hello, Dolly!” that ran at the London Palladium; and ongoing revivals of “Starlight Express” at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theater and “Oliver!” at the Gielgud Theater. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which is playing at the Ambassadors Theater, took home the best new musical award, as well as the best actor in a musical for its lead, John Dagleish, and the outstanding musical contribution prize.
The night’s other major prizes went to a host of productions. The best director award, which pits the most-talked-about plays and musicals against each other, went to Eline Arbo for the “The Years” — a play that has grabbed attention in London for more than the action onstage: Sonia Friedman, the show’s producer, said that at almost every performance, an audience member has fainted during the abortion scene.
The best actress in a musical prize went to Imelda Staunton in the title role of “Hello, Dolly!”, while the best actress in a play award went to Lesley Manville for her Jocasta in Robert Icke’s “Oedipus,” which ran at Wyndham’s Theater.
The best new comedy or entertainment award went to a West End version of “Titanique,” an absurd retelling of James Cameron’s “Titanic” movie featuring Celine Dion songs that had its New York premiere in 2022.
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