Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Sean Hayes disappears into Oscar Levant in Doug Wright’s workmanlike new play GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR

• By drediman
• April 25, 2023
• No Comments

Last night, Doug Wright’s new play Good Night, Oscar opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre. The play ran previously at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre where it received encouraging critical notices. The work arrives in New York on a wave of positive word of mouth, attempting to put itself in contention in an uncommonly competitive season, especially for new plays. In essence, Good Night, Oscar depicts one of Oscar Levant’s final appearances on NBC’s Tonight Show, during which time the troubled and unpredictable pianist and Hollywood personality was increasingly succumbing to his demons.

The play follows in the long line of other bio-dramas exploring the turbulent inner lives of historical icons, namely Peter Quilter’s End the Rainbow (which was subsequently adapted into the film Judy, which won Renée Zellweger an Academy Award), Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon (starring a tremendous Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, who also appeared in the film adaptation), and Terrence McNally’s Master Class (which won Tonys for both Zoë Wanamaker as Maria Callas, as well as the play itself). Like those aforementioned plays, Good Night, Oscar is a vehicle for Sean Hayes, who all but disappears into the role of Oscar Levant, successfully shaking off (finally!) pesky associations with his role as Jack in the television sitcom Will & Grace. Wright’s generally workmanlike play gives ample opportunity for Hayes – who here also has the opportunity to show off his training as a classical pianist – to thrash about and engage in admittedly captivating histrionics. Unfortunately, this takes away real estate from the other characters, most of whom come across merely as pawns for the scenery-chewing Levant, especially as ferociously embodied by Mr. Hayes.

Lisa Peterson, who helmed the production at the Goodman, reprises her role as director for the Broadway edition of Good Night, Oscar. Her staging is handsome and scaled beautifully for a Broadway-sized proscenium, and she handles both the play’s naturalism and heightened psychological flights with skill and theatricality. Besides Hayes, the cast is more than competently up to the task of bringing convincing specificity to the play’s world. But ultimately, the production lives and dies by Haye’s performance, which fortunately lives up to the hype that preceded the show’s arrival in New York.

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GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR
Broadway, Play
Belasco Theatre
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Tickets on sale through August 27