It’s likely there are three distinct groups for Doug Wright’s intermissionless 100-minute Good Night, Oscar, as directed by Lisa Peterson for a 2022 Goodman Theatre production. The largest consists of Sean Hayes fans, familiar with the three-time Emmy winner for his television series Will & Grace as lovable Jack McFarland. Possibly, they also know him for his Act of God and Promises, Promises Broadway appearances. That he trained as a classical pianist may come as news to them. His SmartLess podcast probably won’t.
The second, undoubtedly much smaller group (and getting smaller by 2023), are Oscar Levant fans. They know Levant (1906-72) was a favorite Jack Paar guest, showing up to crack wise on late nights in 1963 and 1964. They are aware he made nearly a score of movies, including Rhapsody in Blue, in which he played himself. He was a good friend to George Gershwin, the film’s subject. They know he frequently concertized, almost always including Gershwin’s “Concerto in F.” They know he wrote songs, “Blame It on My Youth” (lyrics by Edward Heyman), among them.
The third, even smaller group are fans of both Hayes and Levant.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★★ review here.]
I’m writing as a member of the second group, keeping the other two in mind, of course. Even before we had the term “appointment television” I tuned into the enthusiastic, highly sensitive Paar when he’d billboard having the chain-smoking Levant on hand. I waited for every one of the man’s dyspeptic comments but, as a doctor’s son, recognized they emerged from someone with an advanced medical condition. (I wasn’t prepared with a diagnosis.) I had already cottoned to Levant in Romance on the High Seas, the first Doris Day movie, about which he subsequently said, “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” I owned his 33s, still do.
So I was eager for Good Night, Oscar to see how my inordinately witty, ceaselessly acidic culture hero would be presented. Wright offers a slice-of-life work – and what a troubled life it is. (Incidentally, the playwright’s I Am My Own Wife foreshadows his ability at observing a determined, self-possessed person.)
It’s Spring 1958. It’s the night when The Tonight Show With Jack Paar has moved to California and he is about to preside over his introductory Burbank Studios outing. The guests include Jayne Mansfield and Senor Wences but, first, Levant. With little time before the José Melis band strikes up, however, Levant has yet to arrive.
Paar (Ben Rappaport) – nervous and loomed over by worried NBC’ president Bob Sarnoff (Peter Grosz), is making futile calls – as is gofer and overly enthusiastic Sarnoff family member Max Weinbaum (Alex Wyse). Their shared panic is not quite ended when Levant’s devoted, long-suffering wife June (Emily Bergl) enters.
She informs Paar that Oscar is coming. She’s recently had him committed, and he needs to be picked up at Mt. Sinai, the Klein Pavilion, She’s secured a pass – but for their “daughter’s wedding.” Balking, Paar agrees. Levant arrives with aide Alvin Finney (Marchant Davis), who totes an attaché case containing Levant’s meds. Among them is a Levant no-no, Demerol. Does it figure in the action? Guess.
What follows – and rather heavy-handedly on Wright’s part – is Levant behaving as if his Klein Pavilion residence is nowhere near terminating. He’s depressed. He’s rich with sour ripostes and retorts. He’s assailed by voices, the most prominent the voice and materialization of none other than George Gershwin (John Zdrojeski), much taller than the genius, woman-baiting composer was. And why not? He’s towering in Levant’s memory.
There are two Good Night, Oscar peak peeks. The first is Levant’s on-air chat with Paar. Though I don’t recall seeing it (I probably did), I hardly memorized it and haven’t been able to track it down. On the other hand, I assume Wright did and has made it the play’s centerpiece. Every line pulses like a flaming arrow.
The second high point is – maybe this should be a spoiler alert, but who wouldn’t be expecting the sequence? – is classically-trained Hayes sitting down at a Steinway concert grand and playing “Rhapsody in Blue,” an orchestra joining, thanks to sound designer André Pluess. All the while, Levant is thinking about how well he’s doing, how Gershwin might have reacted. It’s a stunning interpretation. Even Levant might have approved.
It could be that Good Night, Oscar exists as much as anything for handing Hayes an at-the-ivories tour de force. Otherwise, his Levant portrayal is strong enough. He bumbles and stumbles across Rachel Hauck‘s couple of NBC studios, constantly entrenched in Levant’s havoc, lighting up as obsessively as Levant did. Perhaps aficionados won’t be entirely watching the commanding grouse their guy was, but Hayes adulators will assume they’re getting the real thing.
Could be the same for old-time Paar-tisans. Rappaport doesn’t seem to be out to impersonate the man and his assured-yet-uncertain-of-himself manner. He gets much of the Paar’s professionally charming ways when in front of television cameras. The other cast members, Bergl chief among them, respond to Peterson’s serviceable direction.
As for the audience groups cited above: Good Night, Oscar has something, if not everything, for all three.
Good Night, Oscar opened April 24, 2023, at the Belasco Theatre. Tickets and information: goodnightoscar.com
