George Clooney plays on both stage and screen

Good news, everybody! You don’t just have to settle for seeing superstar George Clooney on a screen anymore. You can now go see him in person… on a screen!

Good Night, and Good Luck — the Clooney-directed 2005 film telling the tale of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s takedown of Joseph McCarthy and the senator’s Red Scare Committee hearings of the 1950s — has now been adapted for the Broadway stage at the Winter Garden Theatre. But while the story may be as timely and important as ever, the adaptation feels somewhat constrained by its reliance on the medium it celebrates and, by the end of the show, skewers.

The play is, in essence, a pretty much verbatim retelling of the film, which is both a strength and a weakness. The biggest change, of course, is that Clooney, who previously played producer Fred Friendly, has upgraded himself to the lead role of Murrow (portrayed in the movie by David Strathairn, who earned an Oscar nom). Clooney acquits himself well, delivering the anchor’s steely yet dispassionate “just the facts, ma’am” demeanor with defiant restraint.

If only he were delivering it directly to the audience. Instead, the star is often tucked into a corner of the set looking away from the seats and to a camera, which then transmits the image to a giant screen in the middle of the stage along with 10 monitors along the perimeter. Sure, the choice makes narrative sense considering the medium — putting theatergoers into a 1950s living room setting to receive the transmission much as viewers did back then — but, like, isn’t that what the film is for? Wouldn’t this stage-set Murrow delivering his broadcast directly to the audience be a fresher and more emotionally connecting take?

There are other instances in which the production — directed by David Cromer — would be better served by untethering itself from the original source material. Like the film, the new adaptation uses the same archival footage of McCarthy and others from committee hearings and interviews, but what worked well for the multiplex lacks the same vitality in person. Why not cast a villain for the crowd to root against on the stage as opposed to on the screen? Why not give us flesh-and-blood accounts of those who were persecuted to drive their plight home? Why keep diverting our eyes to monitors instead of the stage itself?

And a well-designed stage, it is. The show begins with a gorgeously lit singer (Georgia Heers as Ella) seen behind a curtain crooning “When I Fall in Love” (lighting design by Heather Gilbert) before eventually morphing into the CBS news offices of Murrow’s See It Now program. The newsroom bursts with energy in Scott Pask’s deep and clever set design, which has certain rooms shift around as the action dictates.

There are a lot of subplots afoot here, and not all of them completely land. The always great Clark Gregg adds tragic anxiety in assuming Ray Wise’s film role as Don Hollenbeck — a CBS anchor who can’t get past the barbs in the press over his left-leaning past. Fran Kranz ably inherits Tom McCarthy’s part as the guy waiting to find out if his past associations will doom both him and his work on the show. But the side story about Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson (taking on the film characters from Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey Jr.) hiding their marriage from the rest of the newsroom still feels undercooked and a bit divorced from the thrust of the show.

The biggest jolts of energy come from Murrow’s push-and-pull meetings with CBS president William F. Paley (played in full bombast mode by Paul Gross). Unlike Frank Langella’s equal parts measured and menacing Paley of the film, Gross’ Paley is a more charismatic, engaging force that plays well to the back row. Glenn Fleshler also knows how to work a room, scoring some laughs as the new Fred Friendly and punctuating his lines with well-timed quips that came off as understated asides in the movie.

Ah, yes…the movie. The original’s focus on the unchecked power of an elected official using fear, rumor, and lies against his enemies obviously hits even harder in 2025 than it did upon the film’s release 20 years prior, amplifying the stakes in this morality tale. But another theme lightly touched on in the movie — the future role of television in our society, and if it is truly “good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate” — gets even greater emphasis on the stage.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

At one point, Paley even wonders if Murrow’s alleged editorializing on McCarthy could have disastrous consequences well down the line: “You taunt him, Ed, like a cat with a ball of string. But, you see, now you’ve opened the door — news with a dash of commentary. What happens when it isn’t Edward R. Murrow minding the store?”

This frightening line of thought is followed all the way into a new ending for the stage that forces the audience to examine the media, the medium, and ourselves just as harshly as any politician. It’s an ending I won’t ruin here, other than to say that it is the one time in which the almost omnipresent screen does something truly inventive and surprising. So surprising as to lead to audible audience gasps. Let’s just say this production of Good Night, and Good Luck won’t likely be playing the new Kennedy Center anytime soon. Grade: B