George Clooney is making it possible for a heckuva lot more people to see his Broadway appearance in Good Night, and Good Luck: CNN will air the penultimate performance live from Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre on June 7.
This marks the first time a Broadway performance has been televised live. Following the live production at 7 p.m. ET, CNN will host a special to discuss the production and state of global journalism.
The performance will be available to stream later on HBO Max.
In Good Night, and Good Luck, Clooney makes his Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow. As McCarthyism casts a shadow over America, Murrow and his news team choose to confront the growing tide of paranoia and propaganda, even if it means turning the federal government and a worried nation against them. The
The production closes its theatrical run with a matinee performance on Sunday, June 8.
“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to do something that’s never been done,” Clooney said in a statement. “CNN is the perfect place to bring this story of courage to so many more people than we could have ever hoped. Live TV. No net. Buckle up everyone.”
Den of Thieves is producing the live show. Executive producers are Clooney, Deena Katz, Grant Heslov, and Todd Wagner, as well as Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski from Den of Thieves. Grant is a co-director with Micah Bickham.
Good Night, and Good Luck has surpassed the previously held box office record by The Music Man (with 9 performances) on Broadway and is now the highest-grossing production in the history of the Shubert Organization. It recently received five Tony Award nominations, including Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Clooney.
Clooney is well aware of the power of a live TV performance. In 2000, he headlined a live telecast of the play Fail Safe that also starred Richard Dreyfuss, Harvey Keitel and Noah Wyle. It was telecast in black and white on CBS.
And it was his idea — along with Anthony Edwards — to do a live telecast of an ER episode back in 1997. “Ambush” kicked off the fourth season of the NBC drama and was filmed live for the east and west coast. It was seen by 42.7 million viewers.
