The production starring Sean Hayes continues to run in London until the 21st September.
Musical Theatre Review: **** “Occasionally Wright’s text tries to pack in a little too much exposition, but when his words combine with Peterson’s sharp, intelligent direction and Hayes’ phenomenal portrayal, it can be breathtaking.”
The Stage: **** “Sean Hayes’ powerful, committed central performance holds together this story of a musical genius unravelling live on air.”
The Guardian: *** “As Levant, Hayes gives a performance of such busyness – twitches, tics, lip curls, cigarette business – that you wonder if the stage has a fast-forward button. He also, in the moment that surely guaranteed his Tony award, delivers the piano climax live at a Steinway with exceptional panache. Lisa Peterson’s slick, whizzy production, co-starring Rosalie Craig as Levant’s wife June, is a thrilling theatrical experience but, perhaps perversely for a play arguing for television to be more serious, does not bear looking at too closely.”
The Reviews Hub: **** “Lisa Peterson’s direction crackles along at a rapid pace. Rachel Hauck delivers sets of ever-increasing size: small for Sarnoff’s office, larger for Levant’s booze-filled dressing room, and then the entire cavernous stage of the Barbican, cushioned in the foam of a padded cell. “TV is just another madhouse”, says Levant, and this play sets out to prove it. Ultimately, Good Night, Oscar is a solid piece of non-nonsense bioplay made brilliant by an unmissable Hayes.”
Time Out: **** “Director Lisa Peterson’s production is sturdily reliably in the early expositional scenes, but really takes flight when the dividing line between reality and Levant’s worsening mental state begins to dissolve. There’s a grippingly feverish quality to how Rachel Huack’s dressing room and studio sets end up sharing stage space. Privacy no longer exists with cameras turned on couches. It’s fragmentary and frantic – culminating in a truly virtuosic piano performance by a spotlit Hayes, who looks agonisingly at his own hands as if they belong to a stranger. It’s hauntingly powerful and the apex of this funny and devastating play.”
London Theatre.co.uk: ***** “Lisa Peterson’s production is a whirlwind of nervous energy. Rachel Hauck provides a series of mid-century modern sets, the piece de resistance being a soundstage with sound-absorbent walls that could double as a padded cell. What is television if not another madhouse, one of the characters notes.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Inevitably, Good Night, Oscar won’t resonate with British audiences as keenly as with their American counterparts, and the imagined altercations between Levant and Gershwin rather outstay their welcome, but this remains a waspish, compulsive, meticulously well-crafted piece of theatre. Hayes’s brilliance elevates it into a must-see.”
The Telegraph: ** “Doug Wright has serious points to make but it’s a tricky proposition in Britain.”
The Standard: **** “Sean Hayes, best known as the bitchily bright-eyed Jack McFarland in sitcom Will and Grace, transforms himself here into Oscar Levant, the depressive, drug-addicted pianist, actor and wit who was a mainstay of midcentury US talk shows. Doug Wright’s play is a fast-paced, highly polished, zinger-packed vehicle for his astonishing performance, which culminates in an electrifyingly expressive live rendition of Rhapsody in Blue, Levant’s showcase piece, written by his mentor and spectral tormentor, George Gershwin.”
West End Wilma: **** “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.”
The Arts Desk: **** “Oscar Levant is an ideal subject to refresh the debate about media freedom.”
All That Dazzles: ***** “Though the writing and direction in Good Night, Oscar are both as good as it gets, what sets this play apart from many of its counterparts is the lead performance from Sean Hayes. As a fan of his from his TV work, seeing him on stage had always been a bucket-list moment for me, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. What Sean Hayes does with his characterisation of Oscar Levant is acting at its very best.”
London Unattached: **** “Good Night, Oscar is a brilliant evening of theatre with a virtuosic central performance by Sean Hayes as the troubled musician. Before this renewed interest, Levant was something of a forgotten footnote in show business history. Even the director hadn’t heard of him before reading the play’s script. So there is a lot of backstory to establish Levant’s history, often delivered by Eric Sirakian’s Max Weinbaum, the TV show’s nepo baby runner and geeky fan boy. It falls just the right side of being a bit clunky, but Levant’s one-liners, which still sparkle with wit even when laced with venom, form much of the script and compensate for any minor structural weaknesses.”
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