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  World Premiere
GIANT
Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Book by Sybille Pearson
Based on the novel by Edna Ferber
Adapted from the American classic by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber (Showboat), Giant is a daring new musical, already acknowledged as one of the most promising contemporary theater debuts. Epic in vision and scope, swept with passion and violence, touched by humor and sorrow, Giant is the powerful story of a Texas rancher and his Virginia-born wife as they face increasing challenges in their marriage and family in an ever-changing American landscape. Five-time Tony Award® nominee (Marie Christine, The Wild Party) LaChiusa is the first recipient of the American Musical Voices Project Award to present a new work on Signature’s stage.
April 28 – May 31, 2009
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Lewis Cleale as Bick and Betsy Morgan as Leslie in the new musical GIANT at Signature Theatre. |
Click here to see the seating chart
GIANT is sponsored by the Shen Family Foundation, with major support provided by the HRH Foundation. Giant is commissioned by Signature Theatre as part of the American Musical Voices Project. The play is produced with the assistance of The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. A Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA commission. Additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, ExxonMobil, Stetson, and DC Rental.
Please note that due to the Texas-size length of Giant, all matinee performances begin at 1pm and all evening performances begin at 7pm. Estimated running time is 3 hours 30 minutes, including two intermissions.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, y’all.
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MEET OUR GIANT-SIZED CAST
Not only does the 21-member cast of Michael John LaChiusa's Giant live up to its Texas-sized theme, we made sure to rope us up some of the country's finest talent. So settle in and take a look-see at this here "giant" cast!
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Enrique Acevedo (Miguel) OFF-BROADWAY: Latin Heat (Featured vocalist). INTERNATIONAL TOUR (Broadway Asia tour to China, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore): The King and I (Lun Tha). EUROPEAN TOUR: Grease (Danny), Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas). NATIONAL TOUR: West Side Story (Bernardo), Bombay Dreams (Vikram u/s). REGIONAL: Miss Saigon (John); Papermill Playhouse: Camelot; Pioneer Theater Company: Paint Your Wagon (Julio).
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Raul Aranas (Polo) BROADWAY: Loose Ends, Miss Saigon, The King and I, Flower Drum Song. OFF-BROADWAY: NYTW: Beast; Delacorte/Public Theatre: Mother Courage; Public Theatre: Dog Eaters, Jungle of Cities. INTERNATIONAL TOUR: Theatre Royal London: Miss Saigon. NATIONAL TOUR: First National Company: Miss Saigon (Helen Hayes Award, Carbonell Award, Jefferson Award nomination). REGIONAL: North Shore: Pacific Overtures (Irene Award); Gateway Playhouse: Oliver. TV: "Law and Order," "Gideon Oliver." FILM: Burn After Reading (Coen Brothers), Afterwards (with John Malkovich), Buzzkill, JFK, Company Man.
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Judy Blazer (Luz) BROADWAY: LoveMusik, 45 Seconds from Broadway, Titanic, Me and My Girl, A Change in the Heir. OFF-BROADWAY: NYC Opera: Candide, Sweeney Todd; Lincoln Center: The House of Bernalda Alba, Hello Again; Carnegie Hall: Thomashefsky; The Drama Dept.: The Torch Bearers; Roundabout: Hurrah at Last; NYC Encores: Connecticut Yankee; The Met: Twyla Tharpe's Everlast. REGIONAL: Sundance: Funny Girl; McCarter: The Night Governess; George Street: The Miracle Worker; Artpark: Peter Pan; Papermill Playhouse: My Fair Lady; Long Wharf: Twelfth Night; Musical Theatre of San Jose: On the Twentieth Century. TV: "Law and Order," "As The World Turns," "Guiding Light," "Bernstein's New York" (PBS), "In Performance at the White House" (PBS). RECORDINGS: featured on over 20 albums.
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Lewis Cleale (Bick) SIGNATURE: Passion (Giorgio, Helen Hayes Award). BROADWAY: Spamalot (Sir Galahad and Others; Mike Nichols, dir.), Amour, Once Upon a Mattress (Sir Harry, with Sarah Jessica Parker), Swinging on a Star (Drama Desk nomination). OFF-BROADWAY: A New Brain (Gordon), The Fantasticks (El Gallo), Time and Again; Encores!: Call Me Madam (opposite Tyne Daly), Big City Rhythm. NATIONAL TOUR: Sunset Boulevard (Joe Gillis, opposite Petula Clark), South Pacific (Lt. Cable, with Robert Goulet), Mamma Mia! (Sam, Las Vegas). DC AREA: Ford's Theatre: 1776 (John Adams, Helen Hayes nomination). RECORDINGS: William Finn's Infinite Joy, Encores from ENCORES!, Myths and Hymns, RCA Victor's Great Musicals, Call Me Madam,
Amour, Once Upon a Mattress, Swinging on a Star. For my parents.
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John Dossett (Bawley) BROADWAY: Fifth of July, Mastergate, A Prelude to a Kiss, Ragtime, Dinner at Eight, Gypsy (Tony Award® nomination), Democracy, The Constant Wife. OFF-BROADWAY: Atlantic Stages 2: White People; Playwrights Horizons: Saved; Lincoln Center: The Clean House, Hello Again. MCC: Trudy Blue, Dinner With Friends; Circle Rep (member for 14 years): Reckless, The Diviners, Childe Byron, Dalton's Back, Sunshine, El Salvador, others. NATIONAL TOUR: Kiss of the Spider Woman. DC AREA: Ford's Theatre: Captains Courageous, Elmer Gantry; Kennedy Center: A Little Night Music. TV: "Gossip Girl," "Hack," "Law & Order" (all), "Sex and the City," "Homicide," "John Adams" (Benjamin Rush). FILM: Little Manhattan, That Night, Longtime Companion. Proud member of AEA since 1979.
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Marisa Echeverría (Juana) OFF-BROADWAY/NYC: Symphony Space: Surface To Air; NYMF: Kingdom (NYMF Award for Outstanding Performance); NAMT: Kingdom, Sunfish; PS122: At Said; Intar: Points of Departure, Tight Embrace; SPF: Welcome to Arroyo's; BAM: Missionaries. REGIONAL: Syracuse Stage: Spike Heels; La Jolla Playhouse: Jersey Boys; Guthrie: Pleasure Cruise, The New New; Berkshire Theatre Festival: My Fair Lady; ART/Loeb: Richard III. TV: "ER," "Law & Order," "Rescue Me." EDUCATION: Harvard, BA; NYU, MFA.
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Jessica Grové (Heidi/Lil' Luz) BROADWAY: Sunday in the Park with George (Celeste #2), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Miss Dorothy), Les Misérables (Eponine), The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy). OFF-BROADWAY: Anne of Green Gables (Diana), Illyria (Viola). NATIONAL TOUR: The Boy Friend (Polly), The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy). REGIONAL: Evita (Eva), Oklahoma (Laurie), Fiddler on the Roof (Hodel).
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Michael Thomas Holmes (Pinky) BROADWAY: Oklahoma! (Ali Hakim). NATIONAL TOUR: The Producers (w/ Jason Alexander & Martin Short). REGIONAL: The Guthrie: 1776 (John Adams); Alley Theatre: An American in Paris; Boston/St. Paul: White Christmas; Westport Country Playhouse, CT: All About Us; Hangar Theatre, NY: All in the Timing. TV: "Law and Order." FILM: The Producers: The Movie Musical (Stormtrooper Rolf). EDUCATION: Washington University in St. Louis, BFA, Graphic Design; UC Irvine, MFA, Acting. Mr. Holmes is a graphic designer for theater and a member of The Acting Company.
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Betsy Morgan (Leslie) BROADWAY: The Little Mermaid, High Fidelity (Original Cast Recordings). NEW YORK (Theater, workshops, and readings): Lincoln Center: Dodsworth (dir. Mark Lamos), Bernarda Alba (dir. Graciela Daniele); Sea Change, The Addams Family, Prairie (dir. Francesca Zambello), Leap of Faith (dir. Taylor Hackford), First Wives Club (dir. Francesca Zambello), Memphis (dir. Christopher Ashley), The Fantasticks (2006 revival, dir. Tom Jones). NATIONAL TOUR: Mamma Mia!. REGIONAL: Westport Country Playhouse: Of Mice and Men, (dir. Mark Lamos); Pioneer Theatre: The Light in the Piazza. TV: "Flight of the Conchords" (HBO), "Cupid" (ABC). EDUCATION: Emerson College, BFA.
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Jordan Nichols (Jordy Jr.) OFF-BROADWAY: The Fantasticks. REGIONAL: Westchester Broadway: Gypsy; Playhouse on the Square: Urinetown, Ragtime, Bat Boy! the Musical, Hair, Grease, The Who's Tommy, Children of Eden, Chess; Circuit Playhouse: HONK!; The Goat or Who is Sylvia?; Spinning into Butter; Zombie Prom; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. EDUCATION: NYU's Tisch School of The Arts-CAP 21, Drama, 2007.
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Andres Quintero (Angel Sr. & Jr.) NATIONAL TOUR: Altar Boyz. EDUCATION: The American Musical & Dramatic Academy (NY).
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Michelle Rios (Lupe) BROADWAY: The Capeman, The Sound of Music, Man of La Mancha. OFF-BROADWAY: 37 Arts: In the Heights; LaMaMa, ETC: Missionaries; The Public: Dogeaters; Intar: Miriam's Flowers, Unmerciful Good Fortune. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: Goya, Don Pasquale. REGIONAL: Lincoln Center: Carmen; Weston Playhouse: Metamorphoses, The Light in the Piazza; InterAct Theater Company: The Beauty Inside; Alliance Theater: Sleepwalkers; Geva Theater Center; Berkshire Theater Festival; Spoleto Festivals (Charleston, SC and Spoleto, Italy). TV: "Law & Order," "Third Watch," "Guiding Light," "One Life to Live," "Washington Heights." FILM: Dirt.
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Ashley Robinson (Jett) OFF-BROADWAY: Take Me Along, Meet Me In St. Louis, A Child's Christmas in Wales. REGIONAL: Wicked, Hair, Floyd Collins, The Good War, Twelfth Night, Waiting for Godot, The Cripple of Inishmaan. TV: "HATE." FILM: Fallen Souls, The Accident. EDUCATION: North Carolina School of the Arts.
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Isabel Santiago (Petra) OFF-BROADWAY: The Acorn: Intervention. NEW YORK: Intar: Cuba Libre; La Mama: Dusty Springfield; The York: 06880 The Musical. REGIONAL: West Side Story (Maria), Show Boat (Julie), Can-Can (Pistache), Guys and Dolls ( Sarah Brown). CONCERTS: Carnegie Hall: Mozart's Requiem; Raja Theatre: Andrew Lloyd Webber in Concert; Loews: WHU: A Rock Concert, One Night Only. Ms. Santiago is in the rock band "Anything For Loaf."
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Paul A. Schaefer (Mike) BROADWAY: The Phantom of the Opera (Raoul U/S). OFF-BROADWAY: My Life with Albertine, The Pursuit of Persephone. NATIONAL TOUR: Thoroughly Modern Mille (Jimmy, Trevor U/S). REGIONAL: Mill Mountain Theatre: Beauty and the Beast (Beast), Maine State Music Theatre: The Fantasticks (Matt), The Pajama Game (Max), Evita. NY WORKSHOPS: On a Clear Day, Paradise Lost, The Bebop Heard in Okinawa. TV: "Guiding Light." EDUCATION: University of Michigan.
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Martín Solá (Dimodeo) BROADWAY: The King and I, La Bohème, Coram Boy. OFF-BROADWAY: All Eyes and Ears. NATIONAL TOUR: The King and I, Porgy and Bess. REGIONAL: Theater by the Sea: Evita; Two River Theater: The Tragedy of Carmen. OPERA/CONCERT: New York Pops: The Bernstein Songbook; New York City Opera: Anthony and Cleopatra, Cendrillon, Porgy and Bess, Margaret Garner; Queens Symphony: Gauchito and the Pony. FILM: Sabado Morning (Winner of NY International Latino Film Festival and USA Latino Film Festival). RECORDINGS: Amor Y Desengaño.
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Nick Spangler (Bob Sr. and Jr./Lord Karfrey) OFF-BROADWAY: The Fantasticks (Theater Hall of Fame; Eileen and Jerry Orbach Musical Theater Fellowship Award); Old Vic: New Voices 24 Hour Plays (dir. Kevin Spacey). REGIONAL: Casa Manana: The Fantasticks; Gateway Playhouse: Thoroughly Modern Millie; Arvada Center: La Cage Aux Folles. TV: "The Amazing Race" (CBS, winner of season 13). EDUCATION: New York University, BFA, CAP21.
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Katie Thompson (Vashti) NEW YORK: Workshops: Giant, The Lighthouse Project, Piece, A Visual Life; Events: Broadway South Africa (Gershwin), Defying Inequality (Gershwin), Katie & Friends (Birdland), Upright Takes Manhattan (Joe's Pub), Broadway Loves Country (Joe's Pub). RECORDINGS: The Ark (Sariah), The Forgotten Carols (Connie Lou), Dreaming Wide Awake (Say Goodbye), What I've Done Right, KT LIVE. AWARDS: LA Weekly Theater Awards: Best Musical Performance nomination, Best Musical Director nomination; Indie Award nomination for Connie Lou's Christmas; Pearl Award nomination for Safe Harbors. EDUCATION: American Academy of Dramatic Arts (Los Angeles).
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Julie Tolivar (Lady Karfrey) BROADWAY: Curtains (u/s Georgia Hendrix), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (u/s, Truly Scrumptious). OFF-BROADWAY: Lonestar Love (Miss Anne Page, original cast recording). NEW YORK: Bridge Theater Co.: Warning: Adult Content. REGIONAL: Stage First: Hamlet (Ophelia); Riverside: The Last Five Years (Cathy); Sacramento Music Circus: Swing; Stages St. Louis: Crazy for You (Polly); Prince: Bright Lights Big City (Vicky); Fulton: Lovers' Leap (world premiere); The MUNY and Northshore: Cats. TV: "All My Children," "Guiding Light," "The View." FILM: Across the Universe. CONCERTS: Cincinnati Pops and Symphony Orchestras, Joe's Pub. AWARDS: Kevin Kline Award 2008, Best Actress in a Musical.
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Mariand Torres (Analita) INTERNATIONAL: Reignwood Theatre (Beijing, China): Broadway in Beijing. NEW YORK: Abingdon Theatre: The People vs. Mona; York Theatre: Take Me, America (reading); LAByrinth Theatre Company: Untitled, by Brett C. Leonard (reading); NYMF: The Bubble, Cutman. REGIONAL: Merry Go 'Round Playhouse: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. EDUCATION: University of Miami, BM, Musical Theater.
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Lori Wilner (Adarene) BROADWAY: A Catered Affair (Mrs. Hamilton), The Diary of Anne Frank (Mrs. Frank), Fiddler on the Roof (Golde), Awake and Sing! (Bessie u/s), Those Were the Days (Lavche). OFF-BROADWAY: Hannah Senesh (One-Woman Show), Milk and Honey, The Witch, Yiddish Trojan Women, Bubbe Meises, Bubbe Stories, Hannah 1939. NEW YORK: Lincoln Center: Everett Beekin, Carmen, Tribute to Rabin. REGIONAL: A Catered Affair, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound, Broken Glass, The Sisters Rosensweig, Lost in Yonkers, The Glass Menagerie, The Heidi Chronicles, The Immigrant, The Memory of Water, Conversations with my Father, The Sweepers. FILM: Second Guessing Grandma, Gebirtig, Ride for your Life. AWARDS: Drama Desk nomination, Goldy Award, DramaLogue Award.
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THE STORY OF EDNA FERBER AND HER AMERICAN DREAM
By Julie Gilbert, Edna Ferber's great-niece
 Journalist, novelist, playwright, charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, fierce patriot and outspoken civil libertarian, World War II correspondent, Pulitzer Prize winner, and family matriarch, Edna Ferber is unforgettable.
The Ferber I knew was handsome, powerful, fascinating, glamorous. When I first began to seriously interact with her, she had written the novel Giant which was being made into a movie. She was on top of the world, and not infrequently would reach down and pull me up there, too. Having Ferber as a relative was dazzling! She was so accomplished—smart, sophisticated, talented, wealthy, famous—it was hard to fathom her ever being a child.
She was born in 1885 in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Julia and Jacob Ferber, German and Hungarian Jews, respectively. They had moved from Chicago where the family business was dry goods. Better opportunities beckoned in Ottumwa, Iowa where the family migrated in 1892. But Ottumwa proved to be a mistake for the Ferbers, whose brush with Anti-Semitism left a lasting impression on young Edna. Finally, in Appleton, Wisconsin they found peace, modest prosperity, and for Edna, popularity stemming from a verbosity off and on paper. She dazzled ‘em with her charming, witty, more-than-slightly astringent personality. Edna found work as a cub reporter for the Appleton Crescent and graduated to journalist in Milwaukee, where she lived for a time.
Upon finishing her first novel, Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed, which she thought was dreadful, Ferber dumped it in the garbage. Her mother retrieved it, dusted it off, and secretly submitted it to a Chicago publisher. Her action proved a substantial one. The book was accepted.
After the first novel, the family moved back to Chicago and Ferber gained a Midwestern reputation as "the great short story writer, Edna Ferber." She then authored a feminist series about a divorced traveling saleswoman, jumping hurdles to bring up her son. Emma McChesney was a sensation. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed her his favorite heroine. Ethel Barrymore played her on the stage. Ferber's balloon was sailing up. The novel So Big, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924, sent it soaring.
Ferber was now an official celebrity. She became a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, where she first became acquainted with the young theater critic and playwright, George S. Kaufman. They paired up to write Minick, a flop, and then the substantial Broadway hit, The Royal Family. Meanwhile Ferber had been busy writing her next novel, Show Boat, which became one of the biggest blockbusters of the early 20th Century. And when she was introduced to Jerome Kern, true history was made.
The Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein III musical, Show Boat, opened on Broadway in December of 1927. One night later, the Ferber-Kaufman play, The Royal Family opened a block away. Edna Ferber was the toast of the town and knew it. She relished her success—living at the top, associating with the crème de la crème of "creative types." The names read like Who's Who: Moss Hart, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Richard and Dorothy Rodgers, Katherine Hepburn, Jed Harris, Mary Martin, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Noel Coward, George and Beatrice Kaufman, Robert Sherwood, Harpo Marx, Gertrude Lawrence, Cole Porter, etc.
Novels poured out of her: Cimarron, American Beauty, Great Son, Come And Get It, Saratoga Trunk, Giant, Ice Palace—and for every one she did a vast amount of research—living in the state that she was writing about, getting to know its people. She became a voice for those people and a banner for their American Dream.
 Ferber was a precursor of the feminist movement in her novels. Her female characters were traditionally powerful. They fought for and held their ground, often protecting the men they loved, and periodically sheltering or deterring their children from their father's ineffectual destinies. "Stronger women, weaker men" was a theme running throughout Ferber's fiction.
Ferber wrote two autobiographies. The first, A Peculiar Treasure, came out after World War II; in it she discussed being Jewish in America and railed against the atrocities brought on by (as she called Hitler), "the house painter, Schicklegruber." Until that volume was published there had been no direct claim of her race. She had been the immensely popular Midwestern yarn-spinner who deftly wove themes of injustice into her colorful quilts. Now, the public was given another self—the real self and they didn't buy it. It was the first time that she didn't have a bestseller. The next time was the second volume of her autobiography, A Kind Of Magic— which followed her popular story of Alaska, Ice Palace—and was to be her last book. The public did not embrace this one, either. They related to her iconic characters. They wanted American stories, not the one about the Jewish woman writer.
Although stomach cancer eventually took her life, Edna Ferber and her story will not vanish. Spirit, wit, integrity, discipline, sacrifice, conscience, insight, talent, luck, temperament, ego, and resilience defined her. Ferber's qualities were, indeed, Giant ones.
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Giant is sponsored by:
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Ted and Mary Jo Shen. Photograph by Chris Goodney |
Giant is also supported, in part, by grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Arlington Commission for the Arts
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