Lithgow made his Broadway debut in British playwright David Storey’s play about an amateur rugby team in Northern Ireland. The play previously premiered at the Royal Court in London (where Giant also originated) in 1971, and that production was Lithgow's professional stage debut.

When The Changing Room arrived at Broadway’s Morosco Theatre in 1973, Lithgow won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play — a tremendous start to his career.

In 1975, Lithgow made his professional Shakespeare debut as Laertes in Hamlet at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, directed by The Changing Room's Michael Rudman. It was a special moment to see Lithgow perform, as it was nearly 40 years until he returned to Shakespeare in the Park again!

In the same year, he led Arthur Wing Pinero’s Trelawney of the Wells, an 1898 theatrical comedy about an actress who marries into respectable society. Lithgow played alongside Mary Beth Hurt and Mandy Patinkin, as well as Meryl Streep in her Broadway debut.

The following year, Lithgow showcased his versatility in three consecutive shows at the now-demolished Playhouse Theatre on Broadway. He appeared in the double bill A Memory of Two Mondays and 27 Wagons of Cotton (one-act plays by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, respectively); the Civil War-set romantic thriller Secret Service (with Meryl Streep); and Bella and Samuel Spewack’s screwball farce Boy Meets Girl.

In 1977, Lithgow played opposite Norwegian star Liv Ullmann in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna Christie. He played Mat Burke, the title character’s lover, and Ullmann and Lithgow’s chemistry was widely admired.

In 1981, Lithgow starred opposite Dianne Wiest in the Broadway premiere of Christopher Durang’s farce about two Manhattanites seeking stable relationships with the help of their therapists (who are even more neurotic than their clients). Lithgow played Bruce, a sensitive bisexual man whom Jeff Goldblum played in the 1987 film adaptation.

Lithgow starred as irascible newspaper editor Walter Burns in Jerry Zaks’s 1986 Broadway revival of this fast-talking Chicago-set newsroom farce, previously adapted as the 1940 film His Girl Friday. The Waltons’ Richard Thomas co-starred as star reporter Hildy Johnson.

David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play pays homage to Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly and challenges ideas about gender and colonialism. Lithgow played René Gallimard, a French diplomat who recalls his relationship with a male Chinese opera singer in disguise.

M. Butterfly won the Tony Award for Best New Play, and Lithgow earned a nomination for his performance. Jeremy Irons played Gallimard in the 1993 film version.

After a dozen years away from the stage, Lithgow returned to Broadway in 2002 to star in his first musical, based on the 1957 film noir of the same name. In this satire of media corruption, Lithgow played powerful columnist J. J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster in the film).

Despite a darkly jazzy score by Marvin Hamlisch, choreography by Christopher Wheeldon, and a cast that included Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara, the show closed prematurely — but Lithgow still won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. Sweet Smell of Success was directed by Nicholas Hytner, who also directs Lithgow in Giant.

Lithgow starred in his second musical in 2005: an old-fashioned musical comedy set on the French Riviera, based on the 1988 film. Lithgow played suave con artist Lawrence Jameson (played by Michael Caine in the movie) who teams up with slapdash rival Freddy Benson (Norbert Leo Butz). Lithgow and Butz were both nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, with Butz taking home the prize.

In 2007, Lithgow made his U.K. stage debut as Malvolio in Twelfth Night for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s hometown. In 2012, he made his London debut as title character Aeneas Foskett in a revised version of Arthur Wing Pinero’s Victorian farce The Magistrate at the National Theatre.

Lithgow played Arthur Miller’s morally compromised patriarch Joe Keller in the 2008 Broadway revival, leading a cast that also included Dianne Wiest as Kate, Patrick Wilson as Chris, and Katie Holmes as Ann. Director Simon McBurney was asked personally by Miller’s daughter Rebecca to stage the play.

Lithgow has played multiple journalists in his time. In 2012, he starred in the premiere of David Auburn’s fictionalized biographical play about journalist and syndicated columnist Joseph Alsop, who was also a CIA agent and a closeted gay man. Lithgow received a Tony nomination for this performance.

Edward Albee’s 1966 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama was revived by Pam Mackinnon in 2014, with a luxurious Broadway cast that included Lithgow, Glenn Close, Lindsay Duncan, and Martha Plimpton. They all proved to be ideally balanced!

In 2019, Lithgow portrayed Bill Clinton in Lucas Hnath’s alternative history play about Hillary Clinton’s (Laurie Metcalf) 2008 presidential campaign, set during the New Hampshire primary.

In spring 2026, Lithgow returns to Broadway as legendary children’s author Roald Dahl in Giant, Mark Rosenblatt’s whirlwind of a debut play. In 1983, shortly before his book The Witches came out, Dahl published an article that readers deemed antisemitic. A war of words ensues as Dahl, his publisher, and his family debate what to do next.

In a five-star review, LondonTheatre.co.uk’s critic described Lithgow’s performance as “career best” and the play as “quasi-miraculous in its embrace of sometimes self-contradictory points of view.” Giant and Lithgow went on to win Olivier Awards, making the show's stateside debut a highly anticipated one. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience a gargantuan performance from an actor at the height of his powers.

Check back for information on Giant tickets on New York Theatre Guide.