“We were looking at taking the play on the road, and taking it to London, and taking it to Paris… but we also thought it never is going to be exactly what it is right now, with the same cast, and we thought it would be nice to have a record of it,” Clooney told The New York Times of the decision to take the show to the small screen. “We thought, because the newscasts are all done live, it is the perfect thing to try to create on live television, which is always exciting—there [sic] no safety net, and it’s a fun thing to do.”
Clooney wrote Good Night, And Good Luck with Grant Heslov, based on the film of the same name he directed and starred in in 2005. Set in the ’50s, the story captures a real-life confrontation between TV journalist Edward R. Murrow and anti-communist senator Joseph R. McCarthy. That story has some, er, unfortunate resonance for our current moment, which Clooney acknowledged as one of the reasons he wanted to make the show more widely available. “What journalists do for a living is always going to be challenged by people in power—they don’t like it unless they can control it,” he said. “And there are some things about this that are more timely right now, of course.”
The livestream will help bring the incredibly popular show to people across the country who may have never seen a Broadway play before, Clooney noted. Even for those who live right around the corner, this hasn’t been an easy ticket. Seats currently average at $305 apiece, leading the show to become profitable in record time. “Ticket prices are high—there’s no question about that,” Clooney said. “So, yeah, let’s democratize this a little bit.” While it failed to secure a Tony nomination for Best Play, Clooney did earn himself a nod for Best Performance By A Leading Actor.
Good Night, And Good Luck will stream live on CNN June 7 at 7 p.m. ET. While Clooney does expect the recording to stream somewhere after the initial broadcast, the team is currently “negotiating to find out what the best position is,” so make sure you tune in early if you don’t want to wait for that announcement.
