‘Good Night, Oscar’ Broadway Review: Sean Hayes Pays Tribute to Golden Age Second Banana

If ever a piece had good reason to overload itself with exposition, Good night, Oscar is the. Once one of America’s greatest geniuses and storytellers, Oscar Levant followed in the footsteps of many other once-famous geniuses and storytellers. This means he needs a lot of attention.

Good night, Oscarthe new bio-play by Doug Wright (I am my own wife) with Sean Hayes (will and grace) as Levant, is instrumental in introducing this popular long-ago talk show to modern audiences. Whether it justifies the effort is far less certain.

A talented pianist and occasional second banana movie actor, Levant is better known today for his frequent appearances on talk shows and game shows in the 1950s and 1960s, his gift for understated sensation and unbridled self-deprecating humor, making him a sought-after if controversial presence from the Golden Age. Others would follow — the Gore Vidals and Truman Capotes and Phyllis Newmans, but Levant was first.

And before you Phyllis Who? Wright, Hayes, and director Lisa Peterson are probably pretty sure Levant belongs on that list, but Good night, Oscar is less convincing.

So here it goes. Levant especially made a name for himself as a pianist, performing the works of his friend and musical superior George Gershwin. He made a name for himself as an actor as a wingman in films like An American in Paris, The Band Wagon And humorous. He made his mark as a TV personality with quirky, sophisticated late-night shows that captivated audiences with slightly risqué jokes, self-deprecating humor about his homely appearance and candid revelations about his addictions and mental health issues. He was a man always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, at the time one of the few personalities that made the pair look stable by comparison.

Some of his jokes survive him. He’s the guy who said he knew Doris Day before she was a virgin and that behind all the fake tinsel is real Hollywood tinsel.

Such contradictions might still be mild entertainment to download from a talk show bank today, but strung together and passed off as dialogue, it makes for a boring biography. Good night, Oscar tries hard to present Levant as some kind of Lenny Bruce-in-the-making – and who knows, maybe he was – but with all the hard selling, the play seems intended to be even more than Tony bait to to serve a hammy Hayes .

Plays mainly backstage at Paar’s Tonight Show, a nervous – well, more nervous than usual – Levant awaits one of his popular guest appearances. But this time it’s different: Levant has spent the past few months in a mental institution, and with the truth-bending help of his wife June (Emily Bergl), the drug-addicted pianist gets a four-hour pass. . The supportive couple (Ben Rappaport) is aware of the situation, but NBC honcho Bob Sarnoff (Peter Grosz) certainly isn’t.

Even before Levant sneaks down an esophagus full of sedatives, we know this Tonight Appearance is a ticking time bomb. He tells a dirty joke about Marilyn Monroe that still raises eyebrows to this day, and talks about politics and mental health and drugs and religion – all things Sarnoff promised him to avoid.

Throughout the play, Wright has a hallucinatory Levant haunted by visits from Gershwin (John Zdrojeski), who keeps reminding us of what that mid-century Salieri eats. Determined to prove himself in all respects the equal of the great composer, Levant swears so tonight TonightHe will show the world how talented he really is.

So it’s more than a little strange when Hayes finally sits down at the beautifully lit Steinway to argue the merits of Levant … and plays “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Title: Good night, Oscar
Location: Belasco Theater on Broadway
Director: Lisa Petersen
Playwright: Doug Wright
Form: Sean Hayes, Emily Bergl, Marchant Davis, Peter Grosz, Ben Rappaport, Alex Wyse and John Zdrojeski
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes (without a break)