The Tamesis
Fans hung out outside New York’s Music Box Theater on Monday night, with the likes of Rebecca Hall, Morgan Spector, Sara Bareilles, Bobby Cannavale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sarah Paulson, Patrick Ball and Isa Briones flocking to watch the opening night. huge– This is quite possibly the hottest ticket in town.
hugeDirected by long-time director Nicholas Hytner and first-time playwright Mark Rosenblatt, the show arrived on Broadway after highly acclaimed reviews (and three Olivier Awards) across the pond—first at the Royal Court Theater and later at the larger Harold Pinter Theater in the West End. The show’s plot was sparked by a very true (and controversial) 1983 article by children’s author Roald Dahl about God crieda book about the Israeli siege and bombing of Beirut during the Lebanon War, by Tony Clifton and Catherine LeRoy. In it, Dahl called Jews “savage murderers” and implored Jews around the world to betray Israel.
As many viewers have pointed out, the show is very topical. Although Rosenblatt wrote huge Long before Israel’s current bombing campaign in Lebanon, these events, along with the ongoing war in Gaza, were certainly at the forefront of viewers’ minds. Where is the line between criticism of Israel and blatant anti-Semitism? And then there’s that old chestnut: can we—should we—separate the art from the artist? Dahl’s example demonstrates how little has changed in public discourse over the past 40 years.
We meet Dahl (played by a towering John Lithgow) at Gypsy House, his home in Great Missenden, England, where he is in the midst of a PR crisis. By his side to take care of him are his much younger fiancée Felicity Crossland (played by Rachel Stirling) and the British publisher Tom Masler (played by Elliot Levy). With the release of his upcoming novel witches Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Dahl’s American publisher, is on the verge of an outcry over his anti-Semitic comments, sending in a young sales director, Jesse Stone (Aya Cash), to simultaneously make Dahl feel cared for and get him to issue a public apology.
In fact, Maschler and Stone, both Jewish, had the responsibility to convince Dahl that he had a moral and financial obligation to renege on his promise. Of course, that’s ironic for more reasons than one: “You understand the power of words better than anyone,” Stone reminded him.
Lithgow’s tall, bald, bespectacled Dahl is more creature than man, his hunched, puppet-like body like something Quentin Blake would have painted on the covers and pages of his stories. The room where the entire drama takes place is being renovated, the stage littered with ladders and plastic tarps and filled with the sounds of hammering and drilling. It’s a pretty stifling environment – not least because of the uncomfortable confrontations that take place there.
Dahl is clearly a antagonist, even a bully, but in Rosenblatt’s script, he’s also incredibly funny. Stone expressed her concerns about losing the American Library Association’s support for her work, and in perhaps the biggest laugh of the night, Dahl quipped, “God. Satan’s army of spinsters!”
After the performance, the actors were greeted with large bouquets of roses and received a standing ovation. From there, cars and trains took guests downtown to the after-party at the Capitale, the historic banquet hall venue inside the former Bowery Savings Bank. The grand space and high ceilings feel fitting for a movie called huge.
although snodzcombs Menus are off, snacks are being passed around, and there are multiple noodle bars and corned beef sandwich stations throughout the venue. Pete Co-stars Ball and Briones were also in the crowd, both huge fans of the show. “Talking about such big, exciting, complex international conflicts and trying to resolve them between people is our life and it’s impossible,” Briones told Fashion. “I think it’s a well-crafted representation of this struggle that a lot of people are feeling right now.”
