Interview: GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR's Marchánt Davis is Conquering Stage, Screen & More

Marchánt Davis, who starred earlier this season on Broadway in Ain't No Mo', is back on Broadway (at the very same theatre), this time in Good Night, Oscar!

Davis stars alongside Sean Hayes' Oscar Levant as Levant's caretaker, Alvin Finney. The production is currently in previews, and officially opens April 24.

In addition to his incredible work on stage, Davis also recently released a children's book called A Boy and His Mirror, and can be seen starring with Sydney Sweeney in the HBO film Reality, an adaptation of Tina Satter's play Is This A Room.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Marchánt Davis about jumping from Ain't No Mo' to Good Night, Oscar, working with Sean Hayes, and much more.

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A few months ago, you were starring Ain't No Mo' on Broadway, and now you're starring in another Broadway show, Good Night, Oscar. What was it like for you jumping from Ain't No Mo to Goodnight, Oscar?

They were both at the Belasco Theatre. So, I'm back at the same theatre that Ain't No Mo' was at. When I originally said yes to Good Night Oscar, of course I thought Ain't No Mo''s run would be a lot longer. But, nevertheless, it's been a whirlwind. It's been bittersweet in some ways to be back in the same space, but it's also nice to be back in the same space.

What does that feel like to be standing on stage and looking out at the audience, but in a completely different headspace?

It was good, and then it wasn't good, and then it was great. It was very disorienting the first time because I wasn't with this show back in Chicago, so I haven't had as long of a history with it as some of the other actors. But with Ain't No Mo', I did it at The Public Theater and then it moved to Broadway after the pandemic, so I had a longer history with it. Which only means that I lived with those characters for a lot longer. So, being back on that stage and saying this text, which is completely different... it's similar in the way that it's a comedy that's a bit subversive, but completely different in the fact that it's set in 1958, and it centers on Oscar Levant. They're two very, very polar opposite plays.

Our first preview was a bit overwhelming because at first, I was like, "You know, this is easy, I'm going to be fine, we're going to be good," and then I got to my dressing room a half an hour before and I just broke down into tears because it was this weird thing! [laughs] I think every actor feels- I can't speak for every actor, I can only speak for myself- after a job, "Will I ever work again?" And for me to not only work again but work in the same theatre, there are a lot of feelings that come along with that. So, it's a bit great, and a bit disorienting in the best possible way.

In Good Night, Oscar you play Alvin Finney, a caretaker of Oscar Levant. What has it been like for you building and discovering this character?

It's been quite a joy! Sean is a pleasure to work with. It's funny, there are a number of things that are happening on and off stage. On stage, of course, my job is to care for him, and I like to say my objective throughout the show is to save the man's life. But off stage, this thing starts to happen where it's life imitating art a bit. So, with Sean, any time there is something wrong I'm like, "Are you good? How are you feeling? What's wrong with you?" He plays piano in the show, so I'm like, "How are your hands?" It's been great to build that dynamic, and also find places in the play where it's not always in the text, it's been quite lovely to build that.

The body doesn't know that you're acting!

No, it's weird! I'm not doing it on purpose, it's just one of those things where when that's your relationship to that person, you start to ask questions like, "Do you need anything?" Sean is a very gifted individual, so you find that he is also checking in. So, it's been quite a treat. I told Sean one of my reasonings for wanting to do this show is because of Oscar's relationship to music, and then a biproduct of that is Alvin's relationship to Oscar's relationship to music. And I have a love for music, and I thought, and my hope in doing this, was that I would sort of reinvestigate what that love was, and it's been a blast so far to gnaw at that. In between, he's always playing something, because he plays piano. And I think it's achieving the thing my soul sort of needed after doing Ain't No Mo' in the fall.

You also have a film coming out on HBO called REALITY. Can you tell me about your experience working on that?

Yes! That was fast and furious. It was a 16-day shoot. It's based off the Broadway play, which was also Off-Broadway, called Is This A Room, conceived by Tina Satter. I play Agent Taylor, who is one of the FBI agents who shows up one day at Reality Winner's doorstep to ask her about the documents that were leaked. I'm not going to lie, that process was pretty tough because it was so fast. Is This A Room is three-actors, along with one other agent that appears. So, it's just me, Sydney Sweeney, and Josh Hamilton. I think one of the exciting things about it is it's just three actors, but one of the nauseating things about it is that most of the film happens in the room [laughs]. Because there is the interrogation. And when I say nauseating, it was a pretty grueling process because we were in that room for about six days, and there were times in which you felt like, "Oh man, where are we in the scene again?"

It places you right into that claustrophobic sort of interrogation world, but in a banal way in which we haven't really seen, or don't see, on television. On television you see, "You can't handle the truth!" It's really Hollywoodfied. This is the transcript of what happened on that day. So, as an actor, it's really exciting to be able to speak text that you know was spoken.

How does it feel to have the opportunity to jump between the stage and the screen, and have the opportunity to embody all of these different characters?

At the end of the day I'm a storyteller, and wherever the stories can best be told is where I'm going to tell them. I also released a children's book through Penguin Random House earlier this year called A Boy and His Mirror. And so, I think part of me is just excited to be able to tell stories in more than one facet, whether that be on the stage, on screen, in book form, it's not lost on me how much of a privilege it is. It's what I dreamed of, to be able to jump back and forth and have a life on film as well as on stage.

I've been out of NYU Grad Acting since 2016, I've been lucky enough to do that for the last six- and three-quarter years of my career. Before the pandemic, I did a play at the Vivian Beaumont called The Great Society with the titan that is Brian Cox, who plays Logan Roy in Succession, and I also released a film called The Day Shall Come during that time. And so, if I'm blessed enough for the rest of my career to look like this, then I think I will have lived a very fruitful one.

What would you like to say to people who are planning to come and see Good Night, Oscar on Broadway?

Sean is actually playing the piano, so don't ask that question [laughs]. He is actually playing the piano, he is that good. I would say it's a play where even though it's set in 1958, you don't have to know much about Oscar Levant to be welcomed into this world. And I would say come with an open mind and open heart as you would with most things! But most importantly, Sean is playing the piano!

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