Fans of Sean Hayes associate him with comedy. This is natural considering his 11 years playing Jack McFarland on the TV sitcom “Will and Grace.” They won’t be surprised to hear his comic timing and delivery now on Broadway in Good Night, Oscar.
They might be surprised to see his dramatic chops as he plays pianist and intellectual wit Oscar Levant, a man who suffered from serious mental illness and drug addiction. When he falls to the floor writhing in a breakdown several times during the 100-minute show Hayes brings us the tortured man behind the humor.
But what is likely to be the bigger surprise for Hayes fans is that he is a classically trained pianist. Portraying Levant performing on “The Tonight Show,” he sits down at the piano and plays a seven-minute excerpt from George Gershwin’s challenging “Rhapsody in Blue.” The audience at the Belasco Theatre went wild.
I was right with them because I love that piece and because it’s a joy to see these unexpected gifts from an actor I had only seen in “Promises, Promises” and “An Act of God” on Broadway.
Under the direction of Lisa Peterson, Doug Wright’s play is an encapsulated story of the man whose gifts and demons fought each other for control of his life. Levant was widely regarded for his interpretation of Gershwin’s music. He also appeared in the film “An American in Paris” and frequented TV talk shows where he joked about his mental health struggles and drug addiction.
Set in spring 1958 in an NBC studio in Burbank, CA, the play centers around the first night of host Jack Paar’s (Ben Rappaport) “Tonight Show” in Los Angeles. He reluctantly agreed to relocate from New York after NBC president Bob Sarnoff (Peter Grosz) offered him wide freedom to select his guests.
This sets the scene for some delightful commentary about New York vs. Los Angeles. When Paar reminds his boss that he’s had to leave behind “those late-night sophisticates back in New York,” Sarnoff tells him Los Angeles audiences “can be very discriminating.” To which Paar replied, “Sure they discriminate. Against talent. Against intelligence.” He calls L.A. “the one city in the world where a good tan beats a college education.”
All of this takes place backstage in Paar’s office, with Rachel Hauck’s sets offering the appropriately bland, low-key look of the late 1950s. Paar and Sarnoff are sparing over the host’s insistence that Levant be his lead guest for this first West Coast show. Sarnoff worries about Levant’s dependability in terms of showing up and then keeping his sharp commentary in line with censor and sponsor expectations. He wants to replace him with Xavier Cugat, “the King of the Rhumba,” who is in town appearing at the Coconut Grove. No way will Paar agree to that switch for his L.A. premiere.
What neither man knows until Levant’s wife June (Emily Bergl) shows up is that she has had him committed to a psychiatric unit and had only now learned he had been scheduled for Paar’s big night. That’s all Sarnoff needs to hear for him to head for the phone to call Cugat. But Paar, concerned about his ratings and unconcerned about his friend’s mental health, convinces June to get her husband released on a four-hour pass.
Levant’s appearance on the live show, high on pills he had gotten with the help of a studio flunky (Alex Wyse), proves both men right. Prompted by Paar Levant goes full dagger on the three topics he promised to avoid – political, sex and religion. The religious joke, involving Marilyn Monroe’s conversion to Judaism following her marriage to Arthur Miller, would probably shock some people today but in the Eisenhower era it brings immediate calls of protest from the Legion of Decency, Cardinal Spellman, and the National Office of the Parent/Teacher Association. The Methodist church members in the audience and others have left plenty of empty seats in the studio by the time the commercial break ends.
Sarnoff is now ready to send Levant packing but Paar remains determined to have him perform anything, even “Chopsticks,” just to get him at the piano. Throughout his time at the studio, and even more at the thought of playing, Levant has been having imaginary conversations with Gershwin (John Zdrojeski), his former friend and idol, and the man whose genius he thinks he has failed to achieve. These lead to his breakdowns on the floor.
Paar wins, though, and the drug-addled Levant staggers to the piano only to brilliantly perform “Rhapsody.”
Good Night, Oscar is one of the best shows of the season. The play is strong and Hayes is dynamic. It gets my highest recommendation.
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