Hayes is terrific as the depressive and self-deprecating pianist, composer, and noted wit Oscar Levant.
The traditional multi-cam sitcom is basically a filmed play.
Has anyone been better at making a memorableentrance or exitsince Cosmo Kramer?
Sean Hayes in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
Adjmi’s version was apparently darker in tone and both he and Hayes et.
agree they parted ways over creative differences.
Paar fights to have Levant as a guest because he’s controversial.
Marchánt Davis and Sean Hayes in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
But that’s kind of the goal.
He understood the power of spectacle and controversy during TV’s young, naive years.
In 1961, a tearful Paar walked offThe Tonight Showbecause NBC had cut a joke.
Sean Hayes and cast in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
A joke that included the letters W.C., for water closet.
He didn’t come back for three weeks.
He and Oscar Levant have that in common.
Sean Hayes and cast in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
But if you write a play about comedy, God help you if it isn’t funny.
I have erased this line."
“Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her.”
Sean Hayes and cast in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
It’s a tour de force.
The show rests and revolves around Hayes.
Sometimes to its detriment.
Emily Bergl and Sean Hayes in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
The supporting players aren’t nearly as interesting, but they’re not supposed to be.
She says it’s because being on the show will help him, he needs an audience.
A classic showbiz paradox.
Ben Rappaport and Sean Hayes in ‘Good Night, Oscar’.Joan Marcus
Davis is very good as Finney, the relatively thankless role of straight man.
And Grosz, a prolific character actor, runs away with every line he gets.
He turns a knowing, self-serious speech about the waning integrity of television somehow into a punchline.
The agony and ecstasy of puns and pianos.
(The Tonight Showset rendered as a padded cell was an especially nice touch.)
“I’m controversial!
OrGood Night, Oscar.
Sean Hayes is just too easy to love.A
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