Will and Grace star Sean Hayes reprises his Tony-award-winning performance as Oscar Levant in the Broadway transfer of Goodnight, Oscar, now playing at the Barbican.
TV host Jack Paar has booked his old friend and concert pianist Oscar Levant to appear on the crucial debut broadcast of the Los Angeles version of The Tonight Show. What he doesn’t know is that Oscar’s wife, June, has had him committed to a psychiatric hospital for his prescription drug habit but has arranged for him to have a four-hour leave of absence to appear on the talk show.
Twitchy and erratic, Oscar reminisces about his life, thanks to the nerdy film buff and show runner (Eric Sirakian) who wants to know everything. The head of the network tells Oscar to steer clear of topics like religion, politics and sex and to keep his humour clean but he is in no mental state to take orders, especially not with the ghost of George Gershwin plaguing his thoughts.
The writing of Goodnight, Oscar (Doug Wright) is first class with brilliant one-liners like “first she drives me crazy, then she has me committed, it’s the perfect crime”.
Sean Hayes’ portrayal of Oscar Levant is a far cry from his well known character Jack from the TV sitcom Will and Grace and gives a beautifully exhausting performance. What I didn’t know is that he is also a classically trained musician, which is needed for the ten-minute piano solo towards the climax of the play. I would have liked the piano to feature more throughout the piece (to have him tinkering on an old piano in his dressing room could have added to things) but when we did witness him tinkering the ivories it was sublime.
Rosalie Craig has the perfect balance as the stern wife June but ultimately only has what she thinks is his best interests at hear. It was lovely to see Rosalie (looking like a young Patti LuPone) in a straight play, demonstrating that there is more to her than just a brilliant voice.
Goodnight, Oscar is sheer brilliance but I’m not sure who the audience is for it. Is the UK as familiar with Oscar Levant (I for one had never heard of him)? Perhaps a strange choice of story to tell but it is one that deserves to be seen by all.
★★★★
West End Wilma
Goodnight, Oscar is playing at the Barbican until 21 September 2025
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