Good Night Oscar

Blue Swayed Views

Good Night Oscar
Directed by Lisa Peterson 
Barbican Theatre Matinee Performance
2.30pm Thursday 28th August

Um... I don’t get to the theatre much, these days and, if you check out my index and go down to the theatre productions I’ve reviewed, you’ll see how impoverished my section for stage performances is. For one thing, they really are way too expensive and increasingly more, especially nowadays, an ‘upper class’ entertainment. Secondly, the majority of the stuff now playing in London (and I suspect the same goes for Broadway) is either a musical, a jukebox musical or something based on a film or TV series (often turned into a musical version). So it would be true, I think, to say originality on the London stage has, very much, been compromised in the 21st Century. 

However, I somehow got wind of a very limited run play at the Barbican called Good Night Oscar and, thankfully, I glanced at the description to see what it was. And as soon as I read that I knew I was going to have to reach deep into my pockets to try and procure a ticket for this one. 

Now, it’s got a very well known actor in it apparently (to everyone except me, I guess, never heard of him before this but I now have a heck of a lot of respect for him), called Sean Hayes and, basically, he is playing Oscar Levant. I mean... wow... Oscar Levant, a definite hero of sorts, to me, for a number of decades although, truth be told, I don’t know a great deal about him... just always thought he was a cool dude from the bits I’ve seen or heard from him. In fact, as I took stock, I only knew Oscar Levant for about four things and, I’ll quickly list those because, only two of them really come up in the play itself.

Okay, I knew him first for playing Gene Kelley’s piano playing friend in An American In Paris, in which he has that memorable solo scene where he is conducting himself playing all the instruments in the orchestra... among other things. And it is, of course, fitting that Levant would be appearing in a musical based on the music of George Gershwin because, yeah, he was very close to Gershwin while the composer still lived and, of all the piano players Gershwin knew of performing his works, Oscar Levant was the one he liked best and (as you discover in this play) used to get him work when he would, himself, turn people down. 

Secondly, I knew him from playing the friend and one half of a husband and wife song writing team (presumably loosely based on Comden and Green) of Fred Astaire’s character in the metatextual musical movie The Band Wagon. In which he’s also brilliant. 

Thirdly, I have an old and much treasured CD on the shelf which has various Gershwin compositions played by Levant, including the all important Rhapsody In Blue. Depending on which day you catch me it would be debatable as to whether I prefer Levant’s version or the piano duet version by the Labeque Sisters but, either way, it’s not a disc I’d ever want to lose from my selection. 

And lastly, I remember reading Harpo Marx’ autobiography Harpo Speaks, many decades ago. In it I learned of the fateful night Oscar Levant turned up on his door step and wanted to stay the night. Harpo acquiesced and Levant then stayed there for around 13 months, complaining, eating him out of house and home and running up the phone bill. So, yeah, Levant was an interesting character, for sure. 

What I didn’t know, and what this wonderful play uncovers in no uncertain terms, is that he also struggled big time with mental health issues over the years. The play is about a remarkable guest appearance on The Tonight Show from around about 1958 and tells the story of his third of the show, mostly behind the scenes but also the riveting on stage interview too. So it’s set over a few hours and, it transpires, unbeknownst to both the NBC studio head and also the show’s host (played brilliantly by Ben Rappaport), that Levant’s wife (played so well by Rosalie Craig) had recently had Levant committed to a mental hospital where he was receiving electric shock treatments, three months prior. However, she lied to the doctors and got a four hour pass so that Oscar could see one of his daughters graduate... but it was really so Oscar (escorted by his reluctant accompanying orderly) could appear on the show.

And it’s just brilliant. The play sings along with loads of the Oscar Levant wit on display but, so much more. Now I’ll be the first to say (and did) that Sean Hayes doesn’t really look all that much like Levant but, the way the make-up is fixed does give him a passing resemblance here and, although he’s not as heavy as Levant (at least as I remember him from the early to mid-1950s), his performance is positively riveting and he really conveys the spirit of the man. More than that even because, he plays him as the completely neurotic, mental health sufferer that he’s turned into by this point. I mean, his body never stops moving (it’s almost like he has Parkinson’s disease in a way) and we see the various fits and hallucinations as he suffers them. It’s absolutely gobsmacking and, well, let me tell you I was already impressed with the guy playing him but, when, towards the end of the show, the actor plays pretty much the entirety of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue as a solo piano piece (which Levant presumably did on the show too), it just blew me away. 

Good Night Oscar is poignant, witty, funny, very dark and also takes a critical look ahead to the future in some of the irony of the topics included into the mix (including taking aim at the television format itself). And all the actors are absolutely amazing in this too. This one would make an absolutely brilliant movie, I would say, not that it would probably get green lit in this day and age but, hey, one can hope. But if you are a fan of the either the actor or, perhaps more importantly, the great man he plays here... all I can say is, try and get yourself down to the Barbican to see this before it finishes on the 21st September. I’m so glad I spent the money to see this one.