GOODNIGHT OSCAR (BROADWAY) - EQUITY VIDEO SUBMISSIONS
Goodnight Oscar LLC
CONTRACT
Production (League)
$2,323 weekly minimum
SEEKING
Equity actors for roles in GOODNIGHT OSCAR on Broadway (see breakdown).
INSTRUCTIONS
Please prepare the side that corresponds with the role you are auditioning for at
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wysik8v9bkh3odx/AAD_80grAillV__a-pL8jBJIa?dl=0 . If a reader is not accessible to you, you may perform a monologue in the style of the show. If you are auditioning for the OSCAR STANDBY position, please demonstrate or talk about your proficiency on the piano, in addition to preparing the side.
Deadline: Tue, Oct 4, 2022
SUBMIT TO
GoodNightOscarCasting@gmail.com
PERSONNEL
Playwright: Doug Wright
Director: Lisa Peterson
Producers: Grove Entertainment (Beth Williams, Mindy Rich), Barbara Whitman, Hazy Mills Productions, Yonge Street Theatricals, and Frank Marshall.
Viewing auditions:
Casting Director: Stephen Kopel
Casting Associate: Neal Buckley
SEEKING:
ALVIN FINNEY. 25-35. Black. Alvin is a hospital orderly in the mental ward of Mt. Sinai Hospital in 1958. He keeps a tight grip on Oscar’s whereabouts, his meds, and his rampant misbehavior; the two of them have formed an irascible friendship, akin to an old married couple. That said, Alvin has significant ambitions that extend far beyond caring for his highly unstable patient. He plans to attend an HBCU medical college, become a psychiatrist himself, and make his beloved, hard-working parents proud. When he isn’t “on the job,” he boasts a sly, dry sense of humor, a love of music from Scott Joplin to early Chuck Berry; and – beneath his stern demeanor – a big heart. It’s not easy to crack Alvin up, but if you do, his laugh will be the longest and loudest in the room.
MAX SARNOFF. 25-30. White. Max is a sweet kid, who’s eager to please at a hundred miles an hour; in fact, he sometimes stumbles over his own enthusiasm. Thanks to his Uncle Bob – who just happens to be the president of NBC – Max has finagled his way into a job as Jack Paar’s assistant on The Tonight Show. He has a passion for MGM musicals, and loves meeting stars like Debbie Reynolds, Fred Astaire and Oscar Levant. He’s a pushover when it comes to “good deeds;” he’d spend his last nickel on girl scout cookies if it’d help send the scouts to camp, and he’s helped more than a few old ladies cross the street at rush hour. Max is also an amateur impressionist and can mimic everyone from James Cagney to Jean Harlow. From a large and boisterous Jewish family, Max has a Jimmy Olson-meets-a young Mickey Rooney ethos. While he may not always be good at his job, heaven knows, he’s trying.
STANDBY FOR THE ROLE OF OSCAR LEVANT. Early 50's. White. Oscar Levant is a true “character” in every sense of the word. In his youth, he was a celebrated concert pianist and a featured player as the wise-cracking piano player in many MGM musicals. Now he’s hit middle-age, and he's become a raconteur on late-night television. He's got the face of a movie gangster, the posture of a sad sack, and enough scabrous wit for the whole Algonquin Round Table. Despite copious mental health issues, a heavy reliance on prescription drugs, and frequent (very public) breakdowns, Oscar still has a rapier wit, and he’s never more corrosively funny than when he’s mocking himself. Sean Hayes is set as OSCAR. This role requires playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the piano. MUST PLAY THE PIANO EXTREMELY WELL.
OSCAR LEVANT. ROLE IS CAST. Early 50's. White. Oscar Levant is a true “character” in every sense of the word. In his youth, he was a celebrated concert pianist and a featured player as the wise-cracking piano player in many MGM musicals. Now he’s hit middle-age, and he's become a raconteur on late-night television. He's got the face of a movie gangster, the posture of a sad sack, and enough scabrous wit for the whole Algonquin Round Table.’ Despite copious mental health issues, a heavy reliance on prescription drugs, and frequent (very public) breakdowns, Oscar still has a rapier wit, and he’s never more corrosively funny than when he’s mocking himself. This role requires playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the piano. MUST PLAY THE PIANO EXTREMELY WELL.
JACK PAAR. ROLE IS CAST. 35 to 50. White. It’s 1958, long before Kimmel, Corden, Letterman and Carson. Jack Paar is the reigning king of the late-night television talk-show, the first of its kind. Boyishly handsome in an unabashedly All-American way, Jack has a puckish wit and a taste for mischief. His 'aw, shucks' demeanor and midwestern charm conceal hard-core ambition. The smoothest of smooth talkers, Jack's fondness for outré comedians and provocative conversation often make him the bane of network executives, but they valued his uncanny knack for keeping America up way after its collective bedtime.
BOB SARNOFF. ROLE IS CAST. 40's-60. White. The reigning president of NBC during television's Golden Age, Bob’s politics might appear conversative by today’s standards, but in the 1950’s he was merely upholding the “conventional mores” of the era. A philosophy major at Harvard, he takes his role as a television executive seriously; he’s very aware that the shows he produces play in living rooms across the country, to hard-working, earnest American families who expect wholesome values and healthy amusement from his network. Bob’s a family man himself and enjoys giving his nephew Max a shot at the business; he’s proud of the kid and finds his impromptu impressions hilarious. An observant Jew in his private life, Bob is keenly aware that he lives in a “Christian nation” that constitutes most of his audience.
JUNE LEVANT. ROLE IS CAST. 35-50. A former 20th Century Fox contract player, June has a gift for appearing gracious under pressure. She gave up her own career in motion pictures to tend to her very high maintenance husband, whom she loves deeply but whose reckless antics often rattle her down to her last nerve. (“I won’t divorce him,” she’s fond of saying, “but I might murder him someday.”) She has a caustic wit and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Seemingly put-upon, she has a core of steel. A devoted Mother, her energy often goes to protecting her three daughters from their father’s deeply erratic, occasionally scary behavior. Friends of the couple call her “a Saint,” which makes her roll her eyes. What choice does she have?
GEORGE GERSHWIN. ROLE IS CAST. L20's-M30's. Charming and rakish. He's got the tapered physique of an athlete, a winning grin, and the most celebrated career in American popular music. He's self-absorbed and ambitious and not without a darkness and edge; those qualities are mediated only by his monumental talent. He's a hero to the play's central character, Oscar Levant, and treats him like a beloved little brother that he loves to tease and even occasionally bully.
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.
OTHER DATES
First rehearsal: March 6, 2023
First preview: April 7, 2023
Opening: April 24, 2023
Close: August 27th, 2023
OTHER
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.
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