“Giant”, a comedy on the anti -Semitism of Roald Dahl with John Lithgow as author of Truculent Children, was one of the great winners of the Olivier Awards this year, the equivalent of the Great Britain of the Tonys.
The comedy, which was staged at the Royal Court last year and is moving to the West End on April 26, brought home three prizes to Sunday ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London: best actor, for Lithgow; The best support actor for Elliot Levey as an publisher who tries to convince Dahl to apologize for his statements on Jews; And the coveted prize for the best new game.
For that last prize, “Giant” has passed four other titles, including “The Years”, an acclaimed staging of the life of a French (with a back-stroket abortion and a late deal) that takes place at the Harold Pinter Theater until April 19.
The success for “Giant” was perhaps surprising given how much critics praised his opening race. Clive Davis, at the time of London, said that the “subtle, intelligent and elegantly made drama”, written by Mark Rosenblatt and directed by Nicholas Hytner, “deserves to move to a larger phase”. (Lithgow said in the interviews that he wants to bring the game to Broadway.)
In a review for the New York Times, Houman Barekat said that Lithgow was “superb as a besieged but not repentant writer, mixing the excited and avunk esprit with heading, an irreverent puncture and cruelty not characterized.
Two other productions also won three prizes: a awakening of “Fiddler on the Roof”, the much loved musical of 1964, which took place at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theater last year; And “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, a folk-rock adaptation of the history of F. Scott Fitzgerald on a man who ages on the contrary.
“Fiddler on the Roof”, who is moving to the Barbich in London in May, has won the best music awakening prize among other prizes. His competitors were a production of “Hello, Dolly!” which ran to London Palladium; And ongoing awakenings of “Starlight Express” at Troubadour Wembley Park Theater and “Oliver!” at the Gielgud Theater. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, which plays at the Ambassadors Theater, brought home the best new music prize, as well as the best actor in a musical for his command, John Dagleish, and the exceptional prize for the musical contribution.
The other important prizes of the night went to a series of productions. The prize for the best director, who puts the most clarified works and musicals against each other, went to Eline Arbo for the “years” -a comedy that attracted attention to London for more of the action on the stage: Sonia Friedman, the manufacturer of the show, said that almost all the performances, a member of the public made the false during the abortion scene.
The best actress in a musical prize went to Imelda Staunton in the role of the protagonist of “Hello, Dolly!”, While the best actress in an award for the comedy went to Lesley Mande for her “Oedipus” play by Robert Icke, who ran to the Wyndham theater.
The best new award for the comedy or entertainment went to a version of the West End of “Titanique”, an absurd reinterpretation of the film “Titanic” by James Cameron with songs by Celine Dion who had the first in New York in 2022.