Review: GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR, Barbican Theatre
Photo credit: Johan Persson
Oscar Levant was a man of many talents - pianist, comedian, actor, composer and according to NPR, “America’s first publicly dysfunctional celebrity”. Doug Wright’s play Good Night, Oscar premiered on Broadway in 2023, winning Sean Hayes the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Levant, a role that he is reprising for this limited run at the Barbican.
Good Night, Oscar is based on the true story of Levant gaining a four hour pass from a psychiatric hospital to appear on a TV show in 1958. Jack Paar (Ben Rappaport) is a late-night talk show host, interviewing the self destructive and manic personality. Rappaport is charismatic, charming and witty, all of the things a talk show host should be, and he confidently depicts Paar’s devil may care attitude towards the studio’s rules of what should and shouldn’t be broadcast. There are some exceptionally strong performances from the supporting cast. Rosalie Craig plays Oscar’s wife, June Levant, with warmth and humour, while still conveying the heart wrenching struggles of being married to a mentally ill addict. Her chemistry with Hayes is touching and believable, and we are left in no doubt that she will do anything for her husband - including lie to get him a pass from a psychiatric hospital!
Daniel Adeosun plays Alvin Finney, the aid who has been sent to support Oscar on his brief sojourn back into the outside world. He has been hoodwinked into believing that Oscar is to attend his daughter’s graduation, and is none too pleased to find himself at a television studio instead. Aside from this initial deception, he is always one step ahead of his charge, keeping his medical bag out of reach of Oscar and denying his demands for drugs with practised ease. Legendary composer George Gershwin (David Burnett) appears frequently throughout the piece as one of Levant’s hallucinations. The two had known each other before Gershwin’s untimely death, and Oscar felt overshadowed by his success, destined to always recite Gershwin’s work rather than compose and perform his own.
Sean Hayes gives a truly astounding performance as Oscar Levant. Throughout the one hour fourty minute piece, Hayes embodies Oscar with an almost obsessive attention to detail. From his physicality to his vocal qualities, Hayes switches from manic to comedic to desperate to drugged with prodigious skill. There is a gravity to his performance that stays with you long after his well-deserved standing ovation, and his frantic piano solo is an almost uncomfortable crescendo to the barrage of emotional scenes that precede it.
Rachel Hauck’s set design works brilliantly on the Barbican stage. The entire playing space is an enormous padded cell, a nod to the psychiatric hospital that Levant is briefly sprung from, and moving pieces portray the TV studio set, the changing room and the Studio Executive’s office. The vast height, width and depth of the stage aid the feeling of being lost in one's own mind, and alongside Ben Stanton & Carolina Ortiz’s lighting design creates a space that feels somehow both cavernous and cosy.
Although Oscar Levant may not be a household name in the UK, his story is an interesting piece of pop culture history, and the themes of mental health, drug dependence and familial responsibility are ever enduring. Hayes’ performance alone makes this production a must see, and will undoubtably wring the emotions of every audience member that sees it on its sadly limited run.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Sarah Brown
