PicksInSix Review: GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR - Goodman Theatre
Sean Hayes Soars as Oscar Levant!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy
There was a time not too long ago when Broadway viewed biography plays as generally risky ventures. Either the subject was too close to current culture or so far removed that the life and times of the individual might take over the storytelling. Still others involved long, linear decade-crunching history requiring a deep understanding of the era for context.
Times are about to change. Oscar Levant is back and appearing nightly at Goodman Theatre!
“Good Night, Oscar,” an extraordinary new play by Doug Wright, under the spirited direction of Lisa Peterson and starring Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Sean Hayes in an electrifying performance as Levant, unfolds in virtually real time—a matter of hours that have been condensed to 90 spellbinding minutes—at NBC’s 1958 Burbank Studios as Jack Paar’s show is about to launch its West Coast premiere coast-to-coast.
Wright’s searing script captures Levant as a complex, troubled and multi-talented actor and musician over the course of one night when his wife, June (Emily Bergl), has arranged a four-hour pass out of the mental care facility where he has been committed for the past month. It is six years after Levant’s heart attack that left him in a deep depression and dependent on an assortment of highly additive narcotics. It is in this context that his friend Jack Paar (Ben Rappaport) unknowingly books the controversial Levant for the show. When June breaks the news to Paar, he decides to go forward anyway, sending a car and taking responsibility for Levant to protect him from the network’s watchdog boss, Bob Sarnoff (Peter Grosz).
When Levant arrives, you realize that the once-sharp and lethal-witted entertainer has evolved into a despondent, psychotic wreck whose brilliant mind still functions magnificently in a sort of permanent, reclusive alternate state. From the moment he arrives, Hayes tears into the role of Levant who is equally haunted by the memory of George Gershwin (John Zdrojeski), the unyielding responsibility of his professional and emotional association with the composer’s iconic composition “Rhapsody in Blue” and his own lost ambitions. Hayes establishes a blistering pace for Wright’s taunt and riveting dialogue, dispatching the pragmatic and puzzled Levant as a glib, sardonic, sick and desperate soul pleading for the next fix from his medical attendant Alvin Finney (Tramell Tillman) who has accompanied him from the center. Things spiral out of control swiftly when Finney’s efforts are undermined by the star-struck assistant producer Max Weinbaum (Ethan Slater) and Hayes, as Levant, propels the show to an entirely new and extraordinary level. As the talk show goes live, all of Sarnoff’s worst fears come hilariously true and “Good Night, Oscar” roars to a masterful conclusion.
The World-Premiere of Doug Wright’s “Good Night, Oscar” starring Sean Hayes is playing through April 24 at Goodman Theatre. Video | Goodman Theatre
Peterson’s creative team matches the outstanding cast with a stunning set design by Rachel Hauck that glides effortlessly between the NBC Burbank offices, a dressing room and the television sound stage, bolstered by a cinematic lighting design by Ben Stanton and Carolina Ortiz Herrera and evocative sound design by Andre Pluess. Emilio Sosa’s late 50s era costumes are especially noteworthy, particularly the knockout, full-length wrap for Bergl.
“Good Night, Oscar” has been extended to April 24 in Goodman’s Albert and will be joined by the downtown move of TimeLine’s “Relentless” in the Owen on April 1st which means that Goodman Theatre will have the most potent one-two theatrical punch under one roof in a long, long time.
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR
by Doug Wright
starring
Sean Hayes
Albert Theatre
170 N Dearborn Street
Chicago
through April 24
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