Giant (musical)

Giant
Music	Michael John LaChiusa
Lyrics	Michael John LaChiusa
Book	Sybille Pearson
Basis	Edna Ferber novel Giant
Productions	2009 Signature Theatre 2012 Dallas Theater Center 2012 Off-Broadway

Giant is a musical based on the 1952 Edna Ferber novel of the same name, with music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and the book by Sybille Pearson. The musical premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in 2009. The story follows a ranch family in Texas over 30 years, and the effect of the oil boom. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2012.

Edna Ferber's great-niece, Julie Gilbert, had approached LaChiusa about five years ago to write a musical based on the novel Giant. LaChiusa and Pearson initially thought it impossible to stage as a musical. The novel covers decades, and has a large number of characters, with a massive backdrop in wide-open, early 20th-century Texas. "Pearson said she and LaChiusa decided to use the novel, rather than the movie, as the basis for their adaptation because 'the movie, in its own greatness, changes some of the plot.' " The Signature Theatre commissioned LaChiusa to write the musical as the first installment in its American Musical Voices Project.

Jonathan Butterell directed the world premiere production in Signature's MAX theatre, where it ran from April 28 through May 31, 2009. The ranch family was played by Lewis Cleale (Bick) and Betsy Morgan (Leslie), Ashley Robinson was Jett, the young ranch hand who finds oil, with Michele Pawk as Luz, Bick's older sister and John Dossett as Uncle Bawley, Marisa Echeverria as Juana, the Mexican wife, Jordan Nichols as Bick's son Jordy Jr, and Andres Quintero as Angel, son of Mexican American laborers.

The show closely follows the novel, rejecting the many plot changes that were made for the classic 1956 film of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean.

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