That’s entertainment?

One of the world’s favorite actors, John Lithgow, is currently starring on Broadway as Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favorite children’s book authors, in a play all about one of the world’s favorite themes, hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews.

The critically acclaimed show, Giant, is playing to packed houses at the Music Box Theater after an equally successful sold out run in London’s West End.

The plot: it’s 1982 and Dahl, famous for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has just published a book review containing a scathing attack on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Dahl pulls no punches in his description of Israel as a nation founded by survivors of the Nazis who have somehow turned into Nazis themselves.

Yeah, Dahl goes there.

The author, his wife and his London publisher, a Jew born in Germany during the Holocaust, await the arrival of an emissary from his American publisher, a Jewish woman from New York, last name Stone. Her message: offer some sort of apology for your statement or you’ll lose bookstore owners and librarians and your sales will plummet.

Spoiler alert: Dahl doesn’t apologize.

Instead, he doubles down on the vitriol, condemning Israel and blaming Jews worldwide for supporting what he considers the Israeli government’s genocidal behavior.

He takes aim at Ms. Stone, referring to her snidely as “Stein” in a nasty nod to her Jewishness. To her credit, Stone stands her ground, even at the risk of losing her job, debating with Dahl and standing up for Israel.

If you thought this sounds like a weird thing to write a play about, you’d be right. So we have to ask: why would a show with such a seemingly untheatrical premise become a major hit in the two major theater capitals of the world?

Can you say...Gaza?

John Lithgow is one of those rare actors who can stand on a bare stage, read aloud from the telephone directory (if you’re under 40, Google it), and wow the crowd. He’s that good.

The play is as well-written and dramatic as one might hope, the supporting cast is fine, and the set—Dahl’s London home, under noisy construction, looks great.

But still. It’s a strange topic for a smash hit. You’ve got to wonder how this play made it to the stage right now.

If you don’t know the history, let me reset it for you.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to attack the PLO and end the constant bombardment of its settlements and towns near the Lebanese border. In a black mark on the country’s history, the Jewish state stood by and permitted a massacre of a very large number of civilians in the Lebanese Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. And war being war, more Lebanese civilians died in Israeli attacks on Beirut.

These events raised the ire of Dahl, who had served as a pilot in the Middle East during World War II, and prompted his angry, anti-Israel book review at the heart of the play.