Good Night, Oscar

''Good Night, Oscar'' is a comedy-drama play written by Doug Wright. The story revolves around Oscar Levant portrayed by Sean Hayes who appears on the ''The Tonight Show'' with Jack Paar.

It began previews at the Belasco Theatre on April 7, 2023, and premiered on April 24 with a planned closing date of August 27, 2023.

Premise

The show follows a 1958 episode of ''The Tonight Show'', where host Jack Paar has as a guest comedian Oscar Levant.

Production

The show first premiered in 2022 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, with Sean Hayes as Oscar Levant. The production ran from March 12 until April 24, 2022.

The Broadway production is directed by Lisa Peterson. Rehearsals began on March 13, 2023. The production opened April 24, 2023. It also features set design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Emilio Sosa, lighting design by Carolina Ortiz Herrera and Ben Stanton, sound design by Andre Pluess, music supervision by Chris Fenwick, and wig, hair, and make-up design by J. Jared Janas. At the 76th Tony Awards, the show received three nominations and Hayes was awarded Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Those who attended opening night included Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Matthew Broderick, Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Michael Douglas, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, John Krasinski, Victor Garber, Graham Norton, and Cherry Jones.

Cast

Reception

The Chicago production received positive reviews from the ''Chicago Tribune'', ''Chicago Sun-Times'', ''Hyde Park Herald'', and ''WTTW'', among others, with Hayes' performance being especially noted. The Broadway production received mixed notices. The New York Times's Jesse Green called the play an "unconvincing biographical fantasia" and Hayes's performance "less an inhabitation of character than a nonstop loop of perfectly rendered facial tics, trembling hands and compulsive gestures." The New York Daily News called Hayes's "a spectacularly intense and unstinting performance... " The New York Post gave the play two out of four stars and called the play "off-key" and "mostly unsatisfying."

Conception debate

The announcement of the play’s Broadway transfer drew a rebuke from playwright David Adjmi, who claimed in
Facebook post
 that he had persuaded Hayes to take on Levant and was commissioned by producer Beth Williams to write a play for the actor. When Adjmi refused to "lighten the material," he said, Williams and Hayes held their option "in bad faith" to prevent him from further developing his play, while hiring Doug Wright to write a new play based on Adjmi's idea. The production team of ''Good Night, Oscar'' rebutted Adjmi's claim in a press release which alleged Hayes and Williams had themselves gotten the idea to make Levant the center of a play in 2010, and culled Adjmi from a list of playwrights to write it. Adjmi then published an email exchange on BroadwayWorld.com between himself and Hayes, in which he attempted to convince a reluctant Hayes to portray Levant.

Awards and nominations

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

''Good Night, Oscar'' at the IBDB

2022 plays
Broadway plays
Cultural depictions of comedians
George Gershwin
One-act plays
Plays based on actual events
Plays set in the 1950s
Plays set in New York City
The Tonight Show
Tony Award-winning plays