'Good Night, Oscar' review — Sean Hayes puts the extraordinary Oscar Levant back in the spotlight

Read our review of Doug Wright’s Tony-winning play Good Night, Oscar, now in performances at the Barbican to 21 September.

Several years before Woody Allen built a career out of being Jewish and neurotic, the multi-faceted entertainer Oscar Levant openly talked (or at least wisecracked) about mental health on national television, scandalising both Middle America and network executives. In addition to being a purveyor of one-liners and a divisive oddball, Levant was one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation best known for his interpretations of the work of George Gershwin. Among his many other activities, he had cameos and supporting roles in numerous films – usually playing versions of himself – including Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris and The Band Wagon, and he composed the jazz standard “Blame it on My Youth”.

Levant likely suffered from bipolar disorder, OCD, and schizophrenia. Doug Wright’s extremely entertaining and tightly wound play Good Night, Oscar, which was performed on Broadway in 2023, is based on an real-life episode from 1958 during which he left a psychiatric unit for four hours in order to honour a television commitment – in reality, it was a quiz show, but Wright takes the liberty of making it the late-night talk show Tonight Starring Jack Parr, on which Levant made multiple memorable appearances.

In 1958, television was still a relative novelty as an immediate mode of communication that was beamed into homes all over America. For network president Bob Sarnoff (Richard Katz), Levant’s quips are too rarefied, too colourful, and, essentially, too Jewish (Sarnoff is Jewish himself) to appeal to Middle America and he wants nice, wholesome jokes. However, host Jack Paar (imbued with folksy charisma by Ben Rappaport, reprising his Broadway role) wants to elevate chit-chat to an art, and throws the taboo subjects of politics, religion and sex at his guest in order to push the envelope as far as possible (culminating in an X-rated gag about Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe – cue a commercial break).

At the centre of the storm is Sean Hayes as Levant himself, reprising his well-deserved Tony-winning role. Described as “Eeyore in a cheap suit”, his lack of charm and disregard for people-pleasing was a breath of fresh air in the sycophantic entertainment business. Hayes is considerably more boyish looking than the real Levant but has the hangdog expression and an abundance of tics and twitches (his voice also calls to mind Paul Lynde, who was barely closeted and heavily coded as bipolar on Bewitched a few years later). To make the casting even more ideal, Hayes trained as a pianist before becoming an actor and plays a rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue” that’s essentially a nervous breakdown on the piano.

Levant’s hallucinations are dominated by his co-dependant, toxic relationship with his idol Gershwin (David Burnett, who calls to mind a vampiric Jay Gatsby), who was always begrudging with praise and then had the audacity to die in his prime. Levant was made whole by Gershwin’s music and was also tormented by it – a real double-edged soulmate.

There are entertaining turns from Eric Sirakian as eager-beaver fanboy production intern Max and Daniel Adeosun as Alvin, Levant’s put-upon aide with aspirations of medical school. The splendid Rosalie Craig plays June, Levant’s elegant wife of 20 years, for whom “long-suffering” would be an understatement. While terrified by the way in which Oscar’s manias manifest in abusive behaviour, she remains loyal to his essence. “You don’t book a zebra and bitch about its stripes,” she informs Sarnoff.

Lisa Peterson’s production is a whirlwind of nervous energy. Rachel Hauck provides a series of mid-century modern sets, the piece de resistance being a soundstage with sound-absorbent walls that could double as a padded cell. What is television if not another madhouse, one of the characters notes.

Levant hasn’t been a household name for decades; he felt like a “device” in the films in which he appeared (which was mostly true), and he believed himself to be perpetually in Gershwin’s shadow. However, he is firmly in the spotlight here and it’s quite the banger. To quote “That’s Entertainment”, which Levant performed with Jack Buchanan, Fred Astaire and Nanette Fabray in* The Band Wagon*, “The world is a stage / The stage is a world of entertainment”. And television really brought it up close and personal.

Good Night, Oscar is at the Barbican to 21 September. Book Good Night, Oscar tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Good Night, Oscar (Photos by Johan Persson)