As a writer, “Un-Block The Music,” of course supports the Writer’s Guild of America strike, but I am glad the Union agreed to a deal that will allow The Tony Awards to take place this weekend. Obviously, nothing can be produced if you don’t have someone to write it! I am hoping the Tony Awards can bring that all to light. I had the great pleasure of talking this week with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright about Goodnight Oscar, which has been nominated for three awards. Sean Hayes is nominated for best actor in a play for portraying Oscar Levant, the amazing concert pianist, composer and conductor probably known just as much for his outlandish personality as he is for his talent.
Doug said, that Producer Barbara Whitman, Beth Levison and Sean Hayes came to him and asked if “I would be interested in writing a play about Oscar Levant. I had previously done a screenplay about George Gershwin that was never produced. When I was researching that screenplay, I encountered Oscar” who was not only a friend of George but the most accomplished interpreter of his songbook. He was the first performer to record “Rhapsody in Blue” after Gershwin. “Un-Block The Music” saw Goodnight Oscar and admittedly my mouth dropped open when Sean Hayes sat down at the piano and played Rhapsody, an incredibly moving performance. Whether or not Sean receives the Tony Award, I would greatly recommend seeing the show before it closes August 27, 2023. Here is the ticket link. https://www.telecharge.com/Broadway/Good-Night-Oscar/
While Goodnight Oscar is the Doug Wright play getting all of the attention right now, he has written so many well-known plays and musicals. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2004 for I Am My Own Wife. He also wrote the Broadway books to Grey Gardens, The Little Mermaid, Hands On A Hard Body and War Paint.
“I was obsessively focused on playwrighting even as a little kid,” Doug said. While his parents were not necessarily in the theatre, they had a deep affection for it. “My mom managed a children’s book store and my dad was a securities lawyer, but they both minored in theatre in college. I knew what I wanted to do even at an early age. I have done it fanatically since I was about 11 years old when I wrote my first epic work.”
Doug’s first stage production was a one act play he wrote when he was in college. Called The Stone Water Rapture, the story focuses on two teenagers grappling with their sexuality and their consciences in a repressive religious culture. The play was produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and it still gets produced a few times a year, Doug said.
However, I Am My Own Wife gave Doug true name recognition. The play examines the life of German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman. “I met her when I was traveling in East Germany. I was so incredibly compelled by her life stories and I asked if I could write a play about her. She consented. That lead to about two years of interviews. I amassed 500 pages of interview transcripts and I pulled the play from those pages. She was one of the most remarkable individuals I have ever met.” While the play hasn’t been done in New York since the early 2000s, it is still done around the world,” Doug said. In this month of Pride, “Un-Block The Music” would encourage you to read the play.
With all of the accolades for his playwrighting, what pushed Doug into the direction of writing musicals? As “Un-Block The Music” has learned, the reason for a song in a musical is when spoken words are not enough, so I find the transition from writing a play to writing a musical to be an interesting one. Doug said, “My friend, Scott Frankel moved me into musicals when he asked me to write Grey Gardens.” Scott wrote the music and Michael Korie wrote the lyrics. “Initially I resisted, but Scott worked on me for about six months or more and finally persuaded me.” Produced in 2006 and based on the 1975 documentary, the musical is about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy’s aunt and cousin. The show was nominated for Best Musical, and won Tony Awards for actresses Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson.
“I loved working on Grey Gardens and it led to more musicals.” Doug jokes, “musicals are wonderful because there are more people to blame.” But seriously, Doug is a playwright first and foremost. “There is something about writing a play, when you are a sole writer carving it out of your heart, taking full responsibility for every character, every turn of plot. It is especially gratifying.”
Perhaps we will get a glimpse of Sean Hayes in Goodnight Oscar at the Tonys, so tune in to CBS on Sunday, June 11 at 8 p.m. Eastern time. It will be held at the United Palace in New York City with Ariana DeBose hosting.
And…if you are interested, here is an article about Chris Fenwick, musical director for both Oscar and Kimberly Akimbo:
Un-Block The Music 
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