The Cast of Giant Performs at Barnes & Noble

The cast of Giant, the off-Broadway show that played a limited run at the Public Theater this spring, came to Barnes and Noble on the Upper East Side to celebrate the release of their original cast recording on August 1st.

The cast of Giant at Barnes & Noble

Creator Michael John LaChiusa spoke to the enthusiastic crowd, talking about how they took a show that clocked in at five hours (in Dallas) and trimmed it to three hours (in NYC). Giant is based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Edna Ferber that tells of the 25 year marriage of Bick and Leslie Benedict set on the huge ranch that Bick's family owns in Texas. Texas is a big character as well.

It's a big cast and there are lots of songs (it's a 2-CD set), and I hope it will be staged on Broadway soon as I missed the original production.

The show opened with the talented Brian d'Arcy James singing Did Spring Come to Texas.


Next, his co-star, the luminous Kate Baldwin (whom I saw singing earlier in the day in the pouring rain at Bryant Park's Broadway in the Park series with Norbert Leo Butz from their upcoming show Big Fish) joined him for Your Texas.


Next up, PJ Griffith (in the role played by James Dean in the film version) sang Private Property. I've never seen Griffith before, and hope to see him soon on the Broadway stage.


Kate closed the show with LaChiusa's favorite song from the show that got cut when the show went from five to three hours- A Stranger. 


The songs were fantastic, I really hope that we see this show somewhere soon.