Review by Paul Towers, 14/8/25
Goodnight, Oscar by Doug Wright
Directed by Lisa Peterson
Produced by Trafalgar Theatre Productions and others
At Barbican Theatre til Sunday 21st September 2025
Oscar Levant is largely an unknown name in the UK. Unless you are a movie buff. Look closely at the credits of numerous films of the 30’s to 50’s and his name will be somewhere down among the also-rans. However, if you had lived in America at that time you would have seen and heard him on various TV and radio shows.
So it is an eye opener for us Brits to get a glimpse into his troubled personal life. Goodnight, Oscar is a snapshot of his mental illnesses and how he ‘coped’ with them.
On stage Oscar (Sean Hayes) has been sprung from the mental institute where his wife June (Rosalie Craig) has had him sectioned for his own safety. All sorts of treatments have been tried including ECT to control his OCD, depression and psychosis. All to little effect.
He has just 4 hours’ freedom in which to appear on friend Jack Parr’s (Ben Rappaport) show. Oscar is being nurse-maided by institute worker Alvin (Daniel Adeosun) while Oscar browbeats studio runner Max (Eric Sirakian) into sourcing drugs for him.
But, no matter what is going on around him it is Sean Hayes’ outstanding performance as the dissolute Levant that we wonder at. Oscar drifts from psychotic madman to weeping desperation to almost normal. All the while still managing to throw away searing one-liners willy nilly.
Of course the absolute highlight of the performance is Hayes’ astonishing rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, live on a grand piano centre stage.
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