Overview
- Lithgow won the Tony for Best Leading Actor on Sunday for his portrayal in Giant and set a record as the oldest man to win a competitive acting Tony at age 80.
- Giant dramatizes efforts in the 1980s to challenge Roald Dahl over antisemitic comments and presents Dahl as a complex figure who could be both charming and blatantly antisemitic.
- In his acceptance speech Lithgow called the play “a play about cruelty in a cruel age” and publicly praised the show’s Jewish author without explicitly naming Dahl’s antisemitism.
- The production premiered in London in 2024, won multiple Olivier Awards, transferred to Broadway in March 2026 where it is scheduled to close June 28, and a filmed West End capture is planned for international theatrical release later in 2026.
- The coverage ties the award to broader questions about how art should handle creators’ bigotry and played out against a Tony ceremony that included on-stage political expression.