Good Night, Oscar
10 September 2025
Barbican Theatre
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Good Night, Oscar, currently playing at the Barbican Theatre until 21 September, is a fictionalised version of a true event. It is 1958. Concert pianist, composer, actor, comedian, author, and conductor Oscar Levant was recently, and secretly, committed to a psychiatric hospital by his wife. Tonight he has four hours leave from the hospital to attend a The Tonight Show as a guest comedian and pianist. Addicted to prescription drugs, mentally unstable, full of neuroses and ticks, Levant tries to make it through the evening with a smile, while host Jack Parr, Oscar’s wife June, and NBC president Bob Sarnoff wage a quiet war with each other.
Sean Hayes is astonishing as Oscar Levant, portraying the suffering genius of a man haunted by his past and present, his view of himself as much as his inadequacies, neglecting his successes in favour of tearing himself down. Going from a tired and quiet man sunk into himself on the sofa to an almost energetic boy animatedly speaking with a vision of deceased composer George Gershwin in a heartbeat, the depth and breadth of emotional states portrayed makes for a fascinating play. From hilarious exchanges to devastating realisations, the narrative is well constructed and engaging. Oscar is fully realised as a multi-faceted person with a plethora of inner demons, beloved and reviled all at once.
At times chaotic, at times deeply touching, the spiralling evening makes for a fantastic play that ultimately culminates in an impassioned live rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Hayes on a grand piano. Running just over 100 minutes without an interval, it’s a messy narrative that manages to find the beauty and humour in a conflicted, struggling mind unable to see its own worth.
