Interview: 'This Show is The Gift That Keeps On Giving': Actor Ben Rappaport on Returning to GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR at The Barbican

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.

How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

Oh, man, deep cuts! I started in high school. When I was fifteen years old, our high school was doing a production of Romeo and Juliet, and they were doing it very modern. I went and saw it, and that's where I officially got bitten by the bug there. I was a musician. I was a visual artist, but I was a shy kid, bit of a loner. But something about that performance really reached down and grabbed me, and I was like, “Ooh, I gotta be up there doing that! I feel like I have that in me, so I gotta be up there doing that.” That was the beginning!

And what made you want to be a part of Good Night, Oscar?

All the people involved, truly! It came to me in early 2022, and I remember getting the email with the offer. I was, first of all, a massive fan of Sean Hayes. I've been a massive fan of his for decades, and Doug Wright [Writer] and Lisa Peterson [Director]. Lisa Peterson and I had done a reading together years before, so it was like, “Oh, someone I know!” And then I read the play, and was absolutely blown away. I thought it was the most witty, but also nuanced, just really engaging piece.

And the role of Jack Paar . . . I started doing research about him, because I was familiar with the name, but I didn't know what he sounded like or looked like, anything like that. But once I started diving in, I was like, “Oh, this is good casting. This feels right.” We really share a lot of the same DNA. I just dove in headfirst into watching footage and reading everything I can get my hands on. I become obsessive over details like that! So it's been a really awesome journey.

For those unfamiliar with Good Night, Oscar, and maybe Jack Parr himself, can you tell us a bit about it?

Yeah! So Good Night, Oscar takes place on one fateful night in 1958. Oscar Levant, played by Sean Hayes is a very well-known actor, comedian, raconteur, but also a concert level pianist at the time. And he's famous for co-starring in movies like An American in Paris. And in the late 50s. He's also really well known for you never really know what's going to come out of his mouth on live television. Talk show hosts like Jack Paar loved him for that!

So on this particular night, 1958, his wife basically breaks him out of a mental health facility on a four-hour pass, tricking the mental health facility that it's going to be for his daughter's graduation, but it's to appear on Jack Paar's Tonight show. And Jack Parr, he was the precursor of Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon . . . He was the OG. He was the pioneer of talk shows where you don't prepare - you just go on and kind of see what happens. Oscar is a big pioneer of talking about his own mental health struggles openly, and this is at this time it was very unheard of. So this is that night when all of that begins to ensue.

You mentioned before that you love getting into all of the research. What was the research process like for you to get into this role?

So I've done this play over the last couple of years in different iterations. So the first one was at the Goodman in Chicago in 2022, and for that, I had about six weeks to prepare. So the research looked like me literally watching hours of YouTube footage of Jack, anything I could get my hands on, right before bed, because I'd like to go to bed with his voice kind of ringing in my ear to “get him” through osmosis. I became obsessed with that! And then reading his autobiographies and things like that.

For Broadway, I went to the Paley Center [for Media] in New York, which is the television museum, and they have a lot more footage that's not available on YouTube. So I expanded it out that way during the Broadway run. And then, re-engaging with it for the West End, just plugged myself back into those videos, and it all came rushing back to me.

What is it like to be playing a real-life person like Jack Paar? How do you find that balance between an impression versus an original character?

My intention right off the bat was to never do a mimicry or an impression of any sort. So my challenge over the last few years has been, “How do I strike that balance between honouring who this guy really was but also making it authentic and not an impersonation?” So what I've discovered over the last few years is an amalgamation of where me and him meet in the middle. So it really comes down to technical things like dialect work.

He's from Michigan, originally, but he started out on the radio, so there's a very specific tonality that's very rehearsed for him. He stuttered a lot as a child, so he overcame that by really focusing hard on his voice and speech. So that's a real key to the role for me. And then just some physical things, some mannerisms and posture and things like that. Little ticks, little nuances. But other than those key elements, it's about understanding it from the inside out. Who is he? Where is he coming from? But as an actor, in order for it to be authentic, you have to really use yourself. So it's been really strict about striking that balance for me.

And what has it been like to return to Good Night, Oscar in a pretty different location than past productions?

This show is really the gift that keeps on giving. I really love the people involved. Sean Hayes and I have become very close friends over the process of this show, same with Doug Wright and Lisa Peterson. So there is a real feeling of coming home. And between 2022 and now, so much life has happened for all of us! There's something nice about returning to this piece with all that new life experience - it's a dream come true, truly. I trained at Juilliard as an actor, and ever since I was there, performing in the West End is a long-held dream of mine. So to be able to do it with this play that I love so much couldn't be more perfect!

What have the rehearsals been like? Because obviously, you know this show very well!

Well, Sean and I are the returning cast members, and all of our new UK cast members are stellar, incredible and very quick studies. It's amazing how quickly everybody was off book and up and running. It's been interesting because the echoes of what we did in New York and Chicago still exist, but I have to remind myself to stay in the moment and what kind of new nuances can be dug out with these new artists that we're sharing the stage with. So that's been the balancing act for me. It's nice to be able to be so familiar and comfortable with something, and be able to be like, “Okay, what's the newness that we can find here?” So that's been the journey.

And what is it like to be portraying a television personality on stage versus being a part of the television industry yourself? 

I think my experience in working on TV over the years has really informed my performance, because I'm very used to cameras being in my face, and that's very much a part of this play, especially the talk show scene! So I'm really drawing on that experience, and also the experience of when you go on a talk show to promote a project. I've had that experience over the years, and I'm really drawing on what that feeling is when the lights go on and the cameras are rolling.

There's this real feeling of adrenaline, so that adrenaline really comes in handy, especially in the talk show. And then when I'm out in front of the curtain, and it's just me and the audience, the audience becomes a third character in that scene. I'd say that my work on TV is very informative to playing this role, for sure!

It’s a pretty American-based show - how do you think British audiences will react?

That's the real mystery! [Laughs] We believe in the story that we're telling. Our story is a universally human story, no matter who you are or where you're from, so I can only hope that audiences here key into that. And, in any form of theatre, if you can see yourself in some way up on that stage, then we've all done our jobs. So it'll be really interesting to see how different jokes land here, and things like that!

What do you hope audiences take away from Good Night, Oscar? 

The big thing for me is, I hope that people walk away from the show with a feeling that we're not alone, no matter what your struggles are in life, no matter what demons you've got. They all look and sound like different things, but at the end of the day, we're all human beings who just want to be loved. And I hope that people walk away from this show with that message, as well as learning about real people that they might not have really known about, and getting a real intimate look at who these people were, especially Oscar and Jack.

And finally, how would you describe Good Night, Oscar in one word?

Thrilling!

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