If ever a play had good reason to front-load itself with exposition, Good Night, Oscar is it. Once among America’s premiere wits and raconteurs, Oscar Levant has gone the way of many another …
If ever a play had good reason to front-load itself with exposition,is it. Once among America’s premiere wits and raconteurs, Oscar Levant has gone the way of many another once-famous wits and raconteurs. Which is to say, he needs lots of exposition. as Levant, goes a long way in introducing this long-ago talk-show staple to modern audiences. Whether it justifies the effort is considerably less certain.
A talented pianist and occasional second-banana movie actor, Levant is better known today for his frequent talk- and game-show appearances of the 1950s and ’60s, his aptitude for the improvised zinger and no-holds-barred confessional humor making him a sought-after, if controversial, Golden Age presence. Others would follow in his wake – the Gore Vidals and Truman Capotes and Phyllis Newmans, but Levant was first.
Some of his witticisms survive him. He’s the guy who said he knew Doris Day before she was a virgin, and that beneath all the phony tinsel of Hollywood is real tinsel. Ripostes like that, even today, might make for some mild amusement dropped from a talk show couch, but strung together and passing for dialogue they make tedious biography.tries very hard to present Levant as a sort of Lenny Bruce-in-the-making – and who knows, maybe he was – but for all the hard sell, the play seems even more intent on serving as Tony bait for a hammy Hayes.show, a nervous – well, more nervous than usual – Levant waits to make one of his popular guest appearances.
Throughout the play, Wright has a hallucinating Levant haunted by visits from Gershwin , reminding us again and again what’s eating this midcentury Salieri. Determined to prove that he is every bit the equal to the great composer, Levant pledges that tonight, onSo it’s more than a little odd when Hayes finally sits at the beautifully lit Steinway to make the case for Levant’s worth…and plays “Rhapsody in Blue.
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