Though he was a well-known concert pianist, composer, comic actor and author from the 1920s to the 1950s — interpreting the work of his friend George Gershwin, appearing in and writing music for Hollywood films and penning memoirs — Oscar Levant became one of those celebrities famous for being famous.
Levant suffered from mental illness, which he was open about in public. Especially in the latter part of his career, that candor and his renowned wit turned him into a sought-after game-show panelist and talk-show guest.
Dallas native Doug Wright’s 2022 play Good Night, Oscar presents a fictionalized version of the dramatic events surrounding a time in November 1958 when Levant received a pass from a psychiatric hospital to be on Tonight Starring Jack Paar. Would he keep it together on-air? Would his wife let him come home afterward? Levant would return to the show several times through 1962.
Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, which produced Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play I Am My Own Wife online early in the pandemic, is now mounting Good Night with Jakie Cabe as Levant and Joey Folsom as Paar. Terry Martin directs. Wright wrote it for Will & Grace star Sean Hayes, who won a Tony for his portrayal of the title character. The playwright is scheduled to attend the April 3 performance.
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Details: March 24-April 12 at the Addison Performing Arts Centre. Tickets at watertowertheatre.org.
Joey Folsom, left, as Jack Paar, and Jakie Cabe as Oscar Levant.
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