review: good night, oscar

All talk? Goodnight, Oscar @ Le Petit Theatre

Goodnight, Oscar @ Le Petit Theatre
Review by Aura Bishop 

When I was a small child, I went through a “talk show” phase. My father worked the night shift at a radio station. I would pretend to fall asleep on the couch so that I could watch Johnny Carson and David Letterman and then get to say goodnight to Dad when he got home. I wish I could find a good way to explain what I loved about that kind of thing as a five-year-old: I couldn’t possibly have understood half of what anyone was talking about. But I loved TV and movies and music and I loved seeing people from TV and music and movies having conversations and making jokes and I hated going to bed early. 

One of Carson and Letterman’s predecessors was Jack Paar, who hosted a few early iterations of The Tonight Show under various names after the departure of Steve Allen, the originator of the late night series. A behind-the-scenes look at a fictitious episode of Tonight Starring Jack Paar is the setting of the current production of the play Good Night, Oscar, now playing at Le Petit Theater in the French Quarter. It’s a unique format for telling the story of Oscar Levant - a virtuosic piano player, composer, conductor, occasional actor, and humorist. 

In the play, Levant is given a four-hour pass to leave the psychiatric facility where he is being committed for in-patient treatment to make an appearance on The Tonight Show. This is based on an event that occurred in real life, but the conversations and specific circumstances are fictionalized as a means to tell Oscar Levant’s story and meet some of the key players in his life. 

Good Night, Oscar took me completely by surprise. I expected it to be interesting. I was not prepared to be swept off my feet. The cast is phenomenal. Kevin Wheatly is a convincing Jack Paar, particularly in his impressive delivery. Reid Williams is swanky and spooky as the haunting memory of George Gerswhin. Zane Syjansky as Max Weinbaum is like a mid-century 'Kenneth the Page' (from the show 30 Rock).

The fan-boy character also acts as a means to fill in historical trivia, giving us backstory on Levant and other guests of the show. Leslie Castay as Oscar’s wife June brings depth and warmth to the discussions with and about Oscar. KC Simms gives a touching performance as the no-nonsense psychiatric nurse with a soft side. Nick Strauss delivers tension and conflict as blustering and uptight NBC executive Bob Sarnoff. 

Michael Paternostro brings down the house as Oscar Levant. It takes a great actor and excellent pianist to take on this role. Levant is a complex character in both his public and private life and a multi-talented performer. Paternostro switches adeptly between Oscar’s acerbic wit and heartbreaking pathos, and delivers a goosebump-inducing performance of Gershwin’s 'Rhapsody in Blue' in the middle of the character’s apparition-filled nervous breakdown. 

The set is a giant tube tv screen meets television studio soundstage meets padded cell, and the sound design takes you right into the world of mid-century television, complete with vintage commercial audio (“Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven!”)  

Levant is the kind of performer whose many contributions to entertainment may be familiar while his name may not be. It makes him the perfect subject for a biographical play such as this. He was prolific and well-known in his day, but isn’t spoken of as frequently in the present as other stars of the day. I learned so much about him in this two-hour show, and was so fascinated that I found myself reading up on him immediately afterwards. 

Goodnight, Oscar runs its final shows this weekend at Le Petit Theater. Click here former information and ticketing