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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It from WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Happy Memorial Day, everyone, and happy Tony season. The awards will be presented live Sunday, June 11th, hosted by Ariana DeBose. Before we get started, let's just acknowledge what a season it has been for Broadway. Here are some figures from the Broadway League. This season, despite some high-profile closures, there were 40 new productions in addition to 35 shows that were renewed from past seasons, and attendance was back at pre-pandemic levels. In addition to attendance, Broadway also had its best year since 2019 in terms of gross ticket sales, which wound up to be about $1.6 billion.

After a very few rough pandemic years, it appears that Broadway is back. Today we are presenting some of the great interviews we've done this season with Tony nominees. First, Sean Hayes is up for Best Actor for his riveting portrayal of virtuoso, pianist and staple of TV talk shows Oscar Levant in the play Good Night, Oscar. We'll speak to Sean about the complexities of the character and getting a chance to show off his own piano skills. Then, the quirky heartwarming Kimberly Akimbo is up for eight Tonies this year, including best musical. Its nominated director and lead actor join us.

Plus & Juliet is a jukebox musical with something to say, a witty book, a great cast, feminist message and a host of beloved pop tunes from Max Martin have made & Juliet one of the most fun shows in recent memory. We'll speak with actor Betsy Wolfe and creator David West Read about the show, which is up for nine Tony awards. Let's get this show on the road.

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A piano genius with a blistering wit who struggles with mental illness and addiction would seem like a risky proposition on live TV. It's that tension that slowly builds over the course of the play Good Night, Oscar with my next guest 2023 Tony nominee Sean Hayes in the lead role.

Oscar Levant was a real-life piano virtuoso known for his interpretations of his frenemy George Gershwin's music. Levant appeared in 13 films, including An American in Paris, and was a staple on talk shows where his quick wit and willingness to really go there made him a sought after guest. He would say things like, "Schizophrenia beats dining alone," and, "I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me." When we meet Levant in Good Night, Oscar the year is 1958 and he's booked to appear on the west coast premiere of Jack Paar Show. There's just one problem. Levant is currently in treatment at a psychiatric facility.

Oscar's crafty wife June gets creative with the truth to get him out of the hospital and to the studio, but he seems in no condition, physically or mentally, to go on stage, never mind play the piano. All of this leads up to a tense showdown and one epic piano performance. Sean Hayes is fully transformed in this role and uses his considerable skill as a pianist, which has earned him a Tony nomination for best leading actor in a play. Good Night, Oscar is running now at the Belasco Theater. I began by asking Sean Hayes when he first became aware of Oscar Levant.

Sean Hayes: 2001. A friend of mine had said to me, "You should play Oscar Levant." I was like, "Who's Oscar Levant?" I didn't know who he was, never heard of him. I went to the Los Angeles Paley Center to look at archival footage and see what she was talking about. I was like, "Wow, he's fascinating." Then I read a lot of his books, and he's an incredible writer. I don't know if you've ever read any of his books. Incredible writer, incredible wit.

Then some years went by and another friend of mine, very famous person, said, "Hey, you should play Oscar Levant." I'm like, "What is this? What is this the universe telling me?" I could see what they were saying because I think they saw that I was classically trained since five years old, I studied piano and then I also had this funny bone in me. I can see the connection they were making, but it was really, really scary because I'm nothing like him at all. Cut long story short, too late, 20 some years later, here we are and met with this incredible script written by Doug Wright, directed by the masterful Lisa Peterson, and an incredible, amazing cast that has become my family.

Alison Stewart: When you saw Levant as a performer, as someone who is a pianist, what was unique about him as a performer, as a musician?

Sean Hayes: He has the most famous recording of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. You can hear his freneticism in his piano recordings. You can hear his manicness, for lack of a better word. What I love about the story and about, like you said, frenemy George Gershwin, he was publicly and privately obsessed with George Gershwin, and then he became possessed by George Gershwin. That's what the play is somewhat about, is that love-hate relationship they had for each other.

Alison Stewart: Let's actually listen to a little bit of Oscar Levant to your point. He was willing to talk about it with Jack Paar. This is a clip, let's take a listen and we could talk about it on the other side.

Oscar Levant: You got to be all right. Listen, you got to be swell. We just keep moving around. What do you do for exercise?

Jack: I stumble and then I fall into a coma.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: The voice, right?

Sean Hayes: Yes.

Alison Stewart: The voice is so specific. How did you work with director Lisa Peterson to make sure that you were creating a character of Oscar Levant, not an impersonation?

Sean Hayes: It's difficult. It's my interpretation of a person. Someone famously said if Oscar Levant didn't exist, he could not be imagined. It's my interpretation of this man who can't be imagined. In a lot of the ways, I'm not really Oscar Levant, I'm playing Oscar Levant. A lot of the ways, you could pick hundreds and thousands of actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman, it was his interpretation of Truman Capote. He's not actually Truman Capote, he's Philip Seymour Hoffman.

It took a lot of deep discovery on my part to get the confidence enough to even start with the voice, then the mannerisms, then the quirks. Lisa and I just went really slowly, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, talking about where they come from, the organicness, the authenticity of being true to who he was and not just doing mannerisms just because.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen to a clip of you from the show. This is you as Oscar Levant. This is Sean Hayes as Oscar Levant being interviewed by Jack Parr after taking a lot of unprescribed medication. This is from Good Night, Oscar.

Jack Parr: Bring us up to date, Oscar. What have you been doing with yourself lately?

Oscar Levant: My behavior has been impeccable. I've been unconscious for the last six months.

[laughter]

Jack Parr: Really? Flat out on your back?

Oscar Levant: Yes, I'm in the middle of a breakdown. It's my fifth in two years.

Jack Parr: Sorry to hear it.

Oscar Levant: Oh, don't be. That's the thing about schizophrenia. It sure beats dining alone.

[laughter]

Jack Parr: Maybe if you got out more a bracing walk in the morning, an evening jog. What do you do for exercise?

Oscar Levant: I stumble. Then I fall into a coma.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: That is Sean Hayes as Oscar Levant.

Sean Hayes: It's crazy listening to that.

Alison Stewart: It's so interesting after hearing him just say those words as well, right?

Sean Hayes: Yes, it's wild. It's so interesting, too, because I would do it so differently for film than I would on stage because you have to project so much more live. I'd probably do it differently if it was film.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Sean Hayes. He is starring as Oscar Levant in the Broadway play Good Night, Oscar now at the Belasco Theater. He has this famous line, people have repeated it over and over again, "There's a fine line between genius and insanity, I have erased that line." As an artist, what do you think of that statement?

Sean Hayes: Between genius and insanity? I don't know. I'm only one of those things, and it's not the first one.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Do you think that held true for Oscar?

Sean Hayes: No. Oscar was a genius for sure. I know we throw that around a lot, but he truly was, man. Wow. Forget about the world-famous pianist that he was. He was such a virtuoso on the piano. Forget about his just natural wit. I'm so impressed with his writing, which this play is not even about. If you get a chance to read his writing, it's incredible. Just his gift of the English language and the efficiency, he's just as funny in print as he is out loud, but the fact that he could do all of those things, and all of those things brilliantly, I think qualifies him as a genius.

Alison Stewart: Sounds like reading his work was as useful, if not more so than looking at footage of him.

Sean Hayes: Yes, for sure. Well, I don't know, probably both.

Alison Stewart: Both?

Sean Hayes: It's probably even because I don't know about that. That's debatable. I think--

Alison Stewart: Just hearing you talk about it, because you've mentioned it twice.

Sean Hayes: Yes, for sure. Yes, no, Memoirs of an Amnesiac is such a great book. How about the title alone? Memoirs of an Amnesiac. It's hysterical. I grew up around mental illness and addiction. For me and being an actor we're observers, so to observe behavior and then get a chance like this to get that out of my body, what I've observed since I was a child is somewhat therapeutic. The role has done a lot for me too not just as an actor, but for Sean, just to, oh, I get to get out now all that stuff that I had to absorb and had no one to talk to about when I was little.

Alison Stewart: What did you learn about the kinds of mental health issues that he had and about the ways they were handled in the late '50s?

Sean Hayes: Yes, for sure. Obviously, we didn't know what we know now back then, and I personally believe, I haven't read anything about it that he was probably misdiagnosed several times that the doctors probably didn't know what he had other than depression and massive anxiety. They started medicating him as they did with lots of people, as we probably still do today, to a major fault.

Oscar, he just got addicted to those medications, and no one there to help him, and all the wrong things to try to wean him off of it. It's just even in the play, played by the brilliant Emily Bergl. June says one doctor prescribed him Demerol to get him off of paraldehyde. The other doctor prescribed him paraldehyde to get him off of Demerol. It was just a screwed-up situation.

Alison Stewart: The actor who plays the wife is so--

Sean Hayes: Emily Bergl.

Alison Stewart: Emily. Thank you. She's terrific.

Sean Hayes: She's incredible. She's amazing. An incredible person too.

Alison Stewart: My guess is Sean Hayes. We're talking about Good Night, Oscar, which is at the Belasco Theatre. Before you go, I have to ask you, because we do this for a living.

Sean Hayes: Yes, ask.

Alison Stewart: I need to ask you about the podcast SmartLess. I'm sure a lot of people listen to it. It's with Jason Bateman and Will Arnette. Have you been keeping up with it during the show?

Sean Hayes: Oh, yes. We record one a week, maybe two a week. The schedule's all over the place because of everybody else's schedule just to combine, but yes, I do that. Then I also have a new podcast coming out in June. It's a Will and Grace rewatch podcast called Just Jack and Will that I do with Eric McCormack, which is also under the SmartLess umbrella, SmartLess Media. Yes, I love podcasting when I'm not on stage.

Alison Stewart: I'm so excited that you just said that because we've had Megan Malawi on the show. She's been in the studio.

Sean Hayes: It's great. Amazing.

Alison Stewart: We have had Deborah Messing when she was on stage last year.

Sean Hayes: Amazing.

Alison Stewart: We've had you now, and now we have a reason to get Eric McCormack in here [unintelligible 00:14:06] podcast.

Sean Hayes: He's the greatest interview. He's the best.

Alison Stewart: What do you like about interviewing people, by the way? I do it for a living.

Sean Hayes: I'm genuinely truly, I'm one of those few people, one of those few actors that really likes people. I was just talking to Kate.

[crosstalk]

Alison Stewart: BFFs. We were watching you. I was watching you guys.

Sean Hayes: We were talking for two hours. I would ask you questions, but I can tell by the energy the way this is going, that I'm not allowed to ask you questions. I would ask you where you're from, why you like this job. What are you doing there? How many hours have you worked so far? Who did you interview today? Who did you like, who don't you like? What's going on with you outside of this?

Alison Stewart: Ah, I'm so glad we just found a guest host when I go on vacation. Sean Hayes.

[laughter]

Let's go out on a little bit of Oscar Levant playing Rhapsody in Blue.

[MUSIC - Oscar Levant: Rhapsody in Blue]

Alison Stewart: That was my conversation with actor Sean Hayes, who is currently up for a Tony for his role in the play Good Night, Oscar.

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The Off-Broadway musical Kimberly Akimbo about a spunky team who suffers from a disease that makes her age four times faster than normal, quickly became the Musty Off-Broadway show of 2021 and then opened on Broadway a year later. Now it is up for eight Tony's, including Best Musical. We'll speak with Victoria Clark, who stars as Kimberly, and the show's director, Jessica Stone. This is All Of It.

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