In the 1950s, Oscar Levant was a household name. Popular game show host, Hollywood film actor, composer and accomplished concert pianist, he is best remembered for his late-night TV talk show appearance, in which he displayed his acerbic wit, accented by his neurotic behavior that bordered on the obscene. This is the focus of Goodman Theatre’s new production, Good Night, Oscar, extended through April 24. Visit GoodmanTheatre.org for tickets and information.
Most notable of Levant’s outbursts were those he generated on the Tonight Show starring Jack Paar.
Paar was himself and enigmatic, somewhat withdrawn personage himself. He was the very antithesis of the glib talk show hosts so popular today. In spite of that fact, Paar was wildly popular, and his frequent on-air jousts with Levant were awaited with rapt attention. It was, however, a rather perverse enterprise. Viewing the Paar/Levant interviews were akin to witnessing a train wreck in progress.
Levant’s high-wire act is captured in all of its death-defying splendor in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright’s world-premiere production Good Night, Oscar. Directed by two-time OBIE Award-winner Lisa Peterson, the play centers around Levant’s appearance on the Tonight Show after Levant has checked himself out of a mental institution on a four hour pass under false pretense.
Good Night, Oscar stars three-time Emmy Award-winning actor Sean Hayes of TVs Will and Grace as the emotionally scarred Levant, who spars with Paar like a wounded bull valiantly striving to draw blood from a matador while in its death throes.
Ben Rappaport is in his Goodman debut as the affable and self-effacing Jack Paar, Broadway, TV and film veteran Emily Bergl (Desperate Housewives, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, opposite Scarlett Johansson on Broadway), is Levant’s long suffering wife, June, and Tramell Tillman in a noteworthy Goodman debut, is Alvin Finney, Oscar’s put-upon caretaker from the mental ward. Broadway’s Ben Rappaport, in his Goodman debut, is the famous composer George Gershwin, Levant’s idol ‘raison d’etre,’ and mental torment (“He’s all suave… looking like a cross between Cary Grant and a Weimaraner!”). I gave up my life in order to be a footnote in his!” Oscar exclaims in the play). Levant was the first, and youngest artist to record Gershwin’s famous Rhapsody in Blue, after the composer. This is a bravura production, rich with brilliant writing, expert staging and superb acting.
Goodman’s production team has delivered another shining production worthy of numerous awards. Hayes delivers a virtuoso performance, capturing Levant’s towering, but tortured genius in every way.
