Columbia Talent Shines in New Broadway Play ‘Good Night, Oscar’
Good Night, Oscar, a new play featuring the work of several Columbia theatre artists, has made its Broadway debut. The play is produced by Theatre alumna Barbara Whitman '05, directed by Adjunct Associate Professor Lisa Peterson, and benefits from the work of Theatre alumnus Blake Bonilla ’23, who served as both Rehearsal Script Assistant and Assistant to the Playwright. The play features Emmy Award-winner Sean Hayes, known for his role in Will & Grace, playing the unforgettable Oscar Levant.
The story takes place in 1958 on the set of Jack Paar’s popular late-night talk show. Oscar Levant is a well-liked and frequent guest famous for his quick wit and unpredictable nature. One of Oscar's favorite one-liners is “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line;” and tonight, Oscar will prove just how true that is. Good Night, Oscar delves into the complex relationship between humor and sorrow, as well as the blurry line between exploitation and entertainment.
Variety praised Hayes’ performance, particularly his execution of a challenging piano tune. “Beside the technical achievement of smoothly executing a piano rendition of a difficult opus, Hayes simultaneously manages an acting performance that highlights the excruciating crucible of the moment: A man high on pills, struggling against himself and the resentment he feels at being trotted out, once again, to play a song he both loves and wishes to move beyond.”
The play will run through August 27 at the Belasco Theatre. You can buy tickets here.
Lisa Peterson is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer and director. She won her first OBIE for directing Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at New York Theatre Workshop in 1990, and her 2nd OBIE, as well as a Lortel Award, for writing and directing An Iliad with Denis O’Hare in 2012, also at NYTW. Since then, she and O’Hare have written The Good Book, commissioned and produced by the Court Theatre in Chicago, and recently at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Her directing work includes, among others, Tony Kushner (Slavs, Humana Festival and NYTW), Beth Henley (Ridiculous Fraud, McCarter Theater); Donald Margulies (Collected Stories, Manhattan Theater Club); The Model Apartment and Shipwrecked at Primary Stages.
Barbara Whitman is a Tony award-winning producer who made her Broadway debut producing A Raisin in the Sun. She produced the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Strange Loop, which marks the first time a musical produced solely Off Broadway has won the award. Other Broadway credits include Red, 33 Variations, Mary Stuart, Legally Blonde, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hands on a Hardbody, 1984, Angels In America, Burn This, Fun Home, and Oh Hello.
Blake Bonilla is a Filipinx-Costa Rican-American playwright from Lakewood, CA. He earned a BA in English (Creative Writing) from California State University, Long Beach. He made his professional stage debut in a reading of Alice Tuan’s Cock’s Crow at East West Players in 2020. He has also seen his work read at East West Players, after frequently taking classes from the prestigious David Henry Hwang Writers Institute. His plays reflect his views on gender, sexuality, and a hint of violence to keep the heart beating.