Good Night, Oscar at Le Petit through January 26
Le Petit is currently presenting Doug Wright’s play Good Night, Oscar. Oscar who? Oscar Levant. Oscar Levant who?
I suspect those under 30 or 40, or even 50, 60 or 70 might have difficulty answering that question. Even the show’s director, A.J. Allegra, writes in a program note, “If you had asked me two years ago who Oscar Levant was, I would have shrugged my shoulders and claimed ignorance.”
Yet in mid-20th century America, Levant was well-known as a concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host & guest, comedian, and actor. That last role might be what he is best remembered for today; I recall seeing him in featured parts in such movies as Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. When one of those films came on TV when I was a kid, my mother would always say, “He was quite a character.”
Good Night, Oscar goes behind the curtain, as it were, to show why he was a “character”. Wisely, Wright, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner for I Am My Own Wife, avoids giving a Wikipedia-esque overview of Levant’s life, but rather focuses on one incident, but it’s a doozy: in 1958, Levant was given a four-hour furlough from a psychiatric hospital to allow him to appear on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar and broadcasting live from Burbank instead of its usual New York locale as a “sweeps week” promotion.
So as Bob Sarnoff, then president of NBC, frets over what might come out of Oscar’s loose cannon of a mouth in prime time, we observe the prickly relationship between Levant and his wife June, a former actress herself, as Alvin, a nurse from the hospital, tries to keep Oscar on the straight and narrow. Act Two gives us the actual interview including a 7-minute excerpt from George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.
Wright knows how to layer in exposition and create dramatic tension, so the show holds your attention. Occasionally, we hear Wright’s authorial voice coming out of a character’s mouth, but for its two hours, Good Night, Oscar provides a mostly interesting portrait of an artist as a crazy man.
I don’t use that term loosely. Levant was certainly talented in many ways and supremely quick-witted so his huge ego might’ve been justified, but he was also self-loathing and obsessive compulsive and prone to aural hallucinations, often featuring his friend and rival, Gershwin. (I generally don’t like imaginary characters in plays but it works well here, revealing one aspect of Levant’s psychosis.)
Wright captures all of this, often using Levant’s actual words. And, in a truly outstanding performance, so does Michael Paternostro who shows us Levant’s obsessions and desperation and brilliance, both verbally and at the piano in a commanding rendition of one of Gershwin’s iconic works, a piece closely associated with Levant. Without ever overdoing it, Paternostro excellently conveys the demons that Levant battled.

Michael Paternostro in Good Night, Oscar
On Steve Schepker’s simple but handsome set, which evokes both a recording studio and a padded cell, Allegra nicely keeps the play’s flow going with clean staging and quick scene changes.
In well-defined if somewhat one-note roles, the rest of the cast–Leslie Castay (June Levant), KC Simms (Alvin), Nick Strauss (Sarnoff), Zane Syjansky (Max, Sarnoff’s nephew and Tonight Show gofer), Kevin Wheatley (Paar), Reid Williams (Gershwin)–are all very, very good.
Some of the “outrageous” things Levant said on-air in 1958 seem rather tame today. I wish he was around now. I suspect Jimmy Fallon would be as eager to have him on The Tonight Show as Paar had been. I’d certainly tune in to see what he had to say.
[For tickets and more info, go to https://www.lepetittheatre.com/events/good-night-oscar]
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Big Couch through January 19
Logan Macrae is an actor new to me but, based on his performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, I hope we see a lot more of him in the future here in New Orleans.
Macrae portrays Nick, the young biology professor whom Martha invites over for drinks with her husband George after a faculty reception. Macrae certainly looks the part of a Midwestern former athlete. One can hardly blame Martha for going after him.
More importantly, Macrae displays a knowing innocence as the new kid on the block, respectful of his elders & all that, and then, as he takes measure of his hosts, reveals world-weary toughness with hints of self-disgust. Often, he’ll almost whisper lines that others might scream, a very effective approach. Macrae’s performance bubbles with subtext that allows an audience to understand just what’s going on in Nick’s mind as the evening evolves into alcohol-fueled nastiness.

Logan Macrae and Casey Groves (with Lin Gathright in background) inWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
I wish the other actors had given as accomplished performances in this Fire Weeds production of Edward Albee’s groundbreaking drama. By now, however, they might be doing so as I and other critics were invited to the first performance of this monster of a play; one can appreciate that Macrae’s castmates may still have been discovering all the details of this dense script.
That said, on opening night, this production, directed by Jaclyn Bethany, a co-founder of The Fire Weeds with Lin Gathright who plays Martha, was good. I wasn’t sure if that would be the case based on her staging last year of Outraged Hearts: The Pretty Trap & Interior Panic, two Tennessee Williams one-acts that were early versions of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, respectively, that featured some bizarre directorial flourishes.
Here, Bethany restricts herself to having a soundtrack of queer-sounding animal noises before the lights go up that hint at atavistic behavior and, working with Lighting Designer Cameron Farnet, a series of lamps and lights that occupy George & Martha’s home that glow blue, white and blood red. I actually wouldn’t have minded more such embellishments for this oft-told tale.
(Bethany has also added an immersive start to the play in which the audience finds itself at the President’s Reception referred to in the script before entering the theater itself; it’s not a bad idea but needed a little refining to be fully effective. I wonder, tho, what the notoriously opinionated Albee would’ve thought of it.)
Otherwise, Bethany has paced the show well, even if it comes in at over 3 hours with two intermissions; one wishes the Albee estate would allow for some judicious trimming. The biting dialog always sounds natural and she clearly understands the contours of this work.
That said, she could’ve done a better job of highlighting some of Albee’s playful and precise language; overall, the production wanted more shaping as a conductor brings out certain passages in a musical work for greater effect. And there were simply too many static stretches where the actors sat and talked and talked, making for a visually dull stage picture.
Gathright and Casey Groves, who plays George, both do well but could offer more shading to their lines. Groves’ George starts out somewhat socially constipated; it’s almost pitiful the abuse he has to put up with that he gets from Martha. We soon see, however, he can give as good as he gets, and is as much a bastard as she is a bitch; with that in mind, a pinch more of organic meanness or ferocity from each of them would not be inappropriate–simply put, both these actors seem a little too innately nice for these roles (again, this is something they might have overcome as the run continues). (Gathright demonstrated last year that she has the potential to be a fine Amanda Wingfield, a cousin, perhaps, albeit a very distant one, to Martha.)
Bethany also plays Honey, Nick’s “mousy” wife. It’s the smallest of the four parts yet Sandy Dennis won an Oscar for this role in the film version. Bethany looks the role of the meek spouse, but too often indicates Honey’s feelings with scrunched up facial expressions; in a case like this, it might’ve been worthwhile if Bethany had either cast someone else in the role or brought in another director who could’ve been more objective about her performance.
Sixty plus years after its debut Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? still packs a wallop for its portrait of dysfunctional married life and has also proven to be remarkably prescient with its talk of recombinant DNA and eugenics. Those who aren’t already familiar with this Walpurgisnacht of a play would do well to check it out.
[More info and tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/edward-albees-whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf-tickets-1082666728329?aff=ebdsoporgprofile]
Curtain Up
With the Holidaze behind us now, we can get back into the habit of attending live performances in theaters…that is, until Mardi Gras and the “Greatest Free Show on Earth” comes along. Until then, when parades take over our streets in a performance art spectacle, check out these productions that will be happening all over the greater New Orleans area.
Having its regional premiere January 24 at the New Marigny Theatre, Timbuktu, USA tells the story of Kelly Kilkenny, a decorated career politician who formulates a devious plot to attain the ultimate seat of power – the American presidency. Will she manage to claim what’s rightfully hers, or will the men (and the monkey) in her life prevent her from claiming the highest seat in the land? Inspired by the works of Sylvia Plath and Samuel Beckett, Ken Prestininzi’s play offers an absurd portrait of American systems of power.
Elizabeth Frenchie Faith directs this Intramural Theater production which features Mary Langley, Emily Laczek, Lauren Wells, Jon Greene, Benjamin Dougherty, C.A. Munn, Becca Chapman, and Joshua Tierney, and plays through February 3. (https://www.intramuraltheater.org/timbuktu)
Intramural’s Artistic Director Bennett Kirschner will be moonlighting from his company when he directs True West for Jefferson Performing Arts (JPA) at their Westwego Performing Arts Theatre (Feb. 6-16). Sam Shepard’s acclaimed comedy/drama explores sibling rivalry, identity, and the clash between the civilized and the wild. It’s set in the California desert, and follows two estranged brothers–Austin, a buttoned-up screenwriter, and Lee, a volatile drifter–whose lives collide in a battle of wills. As their personalities blur and ambitions unravel, a darkly comic and raw portrait of the American dream emerges.
Kirschner will helm a cast of local actors Topher Johnson, Philip Yiannopoulos, and Joshua Tierney, plus distinguished playwright/performance artist and Obie Award winner Deb Margolin as the siblings’ Mom. How did JPA score such a casting coup? Well, Margolin happens to be Kirschner’s real-life mother. (https://www.jpas.org/performance/true-west/)
Back on the East Bank at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center, JPA follows True West with a stage version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Nile (Feb. 14-23). We’re promised “tension” and “claustrophobia” as a “shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare” in this 3-act murder mystery set aboard a river cruiser.
Kris Shaw directs a cast of notable thespians including Jonathan Mares, Jimmy Murphy, Janet Shea, Leon Contavesprie, and Jimmy Demontluzin. (https://www.jpas.org/performance/murder-on-nile/)
Carolyn Nur Wistrand’s fascinating play about Marie Laveau Fever Season will be given a world premiere at Dillard University February 14-23. It’s set in the French Quarter during New Orleans’ Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1853 and will be directed by Ray Vrazel.
On the Northshore, Slidell Little Theatre presents August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Piano Lesson (Jan. 17-26), one of his American Century Cycle plays which focuses on the battle between a brother and a sister over their family’s prized heirloom piano. Jennifer Baptiste directs the production.
All’s Well in Roswell (Isn’t It?) by Michael Druce will be up next, from February 21 through March 9. Directed by Jonah Boudreaux, the play takes place on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, where an unidentified flying object has crashed and the ranch owner has his hands full trying to deal with the press, government authorities, his own family, and Jake, a mysterious ranch hand who has been living on the ranch for the past 10 years who is not what he seems to be. (https://www.slidelllittletheatre.org/2024-2025season)
Mandeville’s Mt. Zion Association Auditorium (851 Kleber St.) will be the setting for One Drop, written by Andrea J. Fulton and directed by Michael Green. The play explores how a biracial man in 1800s Louisiana who can pass for white deals with both the white-dominated society and the Black community that nurtured him. It runs January 17-19; call (718) 812-4252 to purchase tickets in advance.
Also in Mandeville at the 30 by Ninety Theatre, John Wesley directs Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jan. 18-Feb. 2) in which two pairs of young lovers and a group of amateur actors all become entangled in the magical mischief of the fairy realm. Set in a forest near Athens, it’s a perfect way to get into the mood for Carnival. (https://30byninety.com/shows/a-midsummer-nights-dream/)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical about The von Trapp Family Singers, The Sound of Music, will be done by The Company–A St. Bernard Community Theatre at their new home (800 Judge Perez Dr.). Daniel C. Rubio helms the production and its dates are February 7-16.
Shakespeare and musical theater combine at the Saenger Theatre in & Juliet (January 14-19), which tells what might’ve happened if Juliet, as well as Romeo, had lived. After seeing it on Broadway in 2023, I wrote “It’s a worthy idea, but its two-dimensional characters rob it of any enduring emotional resonance.
“A jukebox musical, & Juliet features the songs of Max Martin (Oops! … I Did It Again, I Kissed a Girl, Since U Been Gone, etc.) and it’s fun to hear his hits reconfigured in new arrangements; his other songs, however, are pretty meh. Hit or not, tho, just about all of them are pitched at the same emotional level, belted out with no nuance or subtlety. Luke Sheppard’s direction keeps things moving along while Jennifer Weber’s music-video-ish choreography is so “HI NRG” that it’s less art than aerobics.” Still, it’s in its third year on Broadway, so I guess this rose smells sweeter to others than it did to me. https://www.saengernola.com/events/and-juliet/
And the mother of all jukebox musicals, Mamma Mia!, shimmies into the Saenger February 11-16 with its Greek island tale of a mother, a daughter, and three possible dads, all told using the hits of ABBA. (https://www.saengernola.com/events/mamma-mia/)