Good Night, Oscar
Ages: 12+
Closing: September 21, 2025Good Night, Oscar - 2025 West End History , Info & More
Barbican Centre [Barbican Theatre]
Barbican Centre Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS London
Emmy and Tony Award-winner Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) brings his acclaimed, Tony Award-winning performance to the Barbican this Summer in Good Night, Oscar – direct from a critically acclaimed Broadway season.
It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favourite guest? Character actor, pianist, and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favourite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget.
Full of humour, with an unmissable, virtuosic performance from Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar masterfully explores fame, artistry, and the fragility of genius. This strictly limited one time seven-week summer season at the Barbican will sell out quickly – advance booking is strongly advised.
Good Night, Oscar - 2025 - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Good Night, Oscar
Sean Hayes is flawless in his West End debut
8 / 10
Hayes inhabits his role so completely and with such detail that he’s equal parts mesmerising and painful to watch. He nails flawlessly the fluttering hands and slack-jawed terror of a person living on their very last nerve, the obsessive-compulsive tics that make sense to him but nobody else, the acidic wit as self-deprecating as it is mean (“I’m controversial, they either dislike me…or they hate me”). It’s a stunning performance that reaches its apotheosis in the production’s ultimate coup de theatre: like Levant, Hayes is an accomplished concert pianist and, at the show’s climax, he plays a driven, enthralling version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” that seems to represent Oscar channeling and exorcising all his demons at once.
Sean Hayes and Rosalie Craig shine in the transfer of this Tony-winning play about a pianist disintegrating on a ’50s talk show
8 / 10
Director Lisa Peterson’s production is sturdily reliably in the early expositional scenes, but really takes flight when the dividing line between reality and Levant’s worsening mental state begins to dissolve. There’s a grippingly feverish quality to how Rachel Huack’s dressing room and studio sets end up sharing stage space. Privacy no longer exists with cameras turned on couches. It's fragmentary and frantic – culminating in a truly virtuosic piano performance by a spotlit Hayes, who looks agonisingly at his own hands as if they belong to a stranger. It’s hauntingly powerful and the apex of this funny and devastating play.
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Review Roundup: What Did The Critics Think of GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR?
by Aliya Al-Hassan - August 7, 2025
by Aliya Al-Hassan - August 7, 2025
Emmy and Tony Award-winner Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) brings his acclaimed, Tony Award-winning performance to the Barbican this Summer in Good Night, Oscar – direct from a critically acclaimed Broadway season. What did the critics think?
Review: GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR, starring Sean Hayes, Barbican Theatre
by Gary Naylor - August 7, 2025
by Gary Naylor - August 7, 2025
Long forgotten talkshow guest has plenty to say about culture today
Interview: 'This Show is The Gift That Keeps On Giving': Actor Ben Rappaport on Returning to GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR at The Barbican
by Kat Mokrynski - July 18, 2025
by Kat Mokrynski - July 18, 2025
After runs in Chicago and on Broadway, Good Night, Oscar arrives at the Barbican Centre in London this month. The show, starring Sean Hayes as the titular character, follows famed character actor and pianist Oscar Levant on an unforgettable night as a guest star on Jack Paar’s late-night television talk show. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Ben Rappaport, who plays the role of Jack Paar in Good Night, Oscar. We discussed what it’s been like to be a part of the show since 2022, how he has worked on the role and how it feels to be bringing the show to the West End.
Video: Ben Rappaport Talks West End Debut, GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY and More
by Backstage Live with Richard Ridge - June 4, 2025
by Backstage Live with Richard Ridge - June 4, 2025
Ben Rappaport has a lot to be happy about this year. Fresh off the first season of the NBC drama 'Grosse Pointe Garden Society,' the stage and screen star is getting ready to make his West End debut in Good Night, Oscar. Watch in this video as Ben tells us more about the show and getting ready to hit the stage in London!
Rosalie Craig Joins the West End Cast of GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR
by Stephi Wild - May 6, 2025
by Stephi Wild - May 6, 2025
Acclaimed award-winning actor Rosalie Craig will return to the West End stage this summer to star as June Levant in the London premiere of Good Night, Oscar.
GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR West End Further Casting Revealed
by A.A. Cristi - April 23, 2025
by A.A. Cristi - April 23, 2025
Further casting for the West End premiere of Good Night, Oscar has been confirmed, with Ben Rappaport joining Emmy and Tony Award-winner Sean Hayes this summer, reprising his acclaimed role as legendary talk show host Jack Paar.
Good Night, Oscar History
Other Productions of Good Night, Oscar
| 2021 | Regional (US) |
Goodman Theatre's Premiere Production Regional (US) |
| 2023 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
Videos