Next year, George Clooney will make his Broadway acting debut in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a play that will be familiar to fans of the Hollywood star.
In a stage version of the 2005 film for which Clooney received nominations for best picture and best director, he will portray the renowned TV journalist Edward R. Murrow.
In a statement, Clooney said, “I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially, to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to.”
In the spring of 2025, the Shubert Theatre to be named will host the Broadway premiere of the play “Good Night, and Good Luck,” directed by David Cromer. Clooney will once again co-write it with Grant Heslov.
It makes perfect sense to adapt the 90-minute black-and-white movie, which starred David Strathairn as Murrow, into a play: A few sets host the action, which is heavily dialogue-based. Murrow’s signature on the television show “See It Now” is the source of the title.
A pivotal scene in Clooney’s movie depicted Murrow’s battle to keep CBS executives on board with her critical reporting on Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who was notorious for accusing public servants of being disloyal.
Clooney portrayed Fred Friendly, the co-creator of “See It Now,” who defied tremendous pressure to make sure the stories were shown.
Murrow, who passed away in 1965, is credited with helping to create American broadcast journalism. In today’s media landscape, Edward R. Murrow operated from a moral purity that seems vanishingly rare.
Cromer further said, “There was an immediacy in those early live television broadcasts that today can only be effectively captured on stage, in front of a live audience.”
