We round up the reviews of the stage adaptation based on the film, starring George Clooney in his Broadway debut.
Deadline: “The good news here is that the large cast – Clooney most definitely included – offer up rock-solid performances even though they, like Clooney’s outsize charm, too often get swallowed up in Scott Pask’s large, busy TV studio set design.”
WhatsOnStage: “I admire that an actor of Clooney’s stature is still willing to push himself in new directions when he has nothing left to prove. He’s telling a significant story that deserves to be heard, especially in an era where the only figures truly challenging the government aren’t journalists at all, they’re comedians and talk show hosts. But Good Night, and Good Luck is a case study in how the best intentions don’t always translate into a compelling theatre experience. As Edward R Murrow himself said, we cannot make good news out of bad practice.”
The Washington Post: “The actor makes a shrewd Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow in a handsome adaptation of the 2005 film.”
The Guardian: “There’s an echo quality to the stage version – imitative, resonant but hollower than the original. That’s partly an issue of medium; the film flowed nimbly between whirring camera and tight closeups, the claustrophobia of McCarthy’s red panic reflected in the tightness of the picture, the biting of a tongue. The play necessarily relies on a macro view that, in comparison, feels rigid and affected.”
Variety: “Clooney and Heslov’s taut script stays on target, resisting any expansion of a story that clocks in a speedy 100 minutes. It eschews overloading the narrative with personal backstories or psychological analysis, though an office romance lightens the mood and a colleague’s death darkens it.”
Time Out: “It falls to Cromer and his cast to make the story come alive, and they do what they can. Clooney may not always be entirely comfortable onstage, but he acquits himself credibly. It helps that many of his key scenes are delivered straight to a camera, where he’s right at home: When he furrows his Murrow brow and lifts the bags under his eyes, we watch him in close-up on the pillars of TV screens that frame the stage in Scott Pask’s excellent bilevel set (which is beautifully lit by Heather Gilbert).”
The Hollywood Reporter: “If the drama at times seems almost as educational as it is theatrical, David Cromer’s deluxe production remains classy, absorbing entertainment. It conjures the professional milieu with evocative detail and captures the grit and backbone of a news team at a time before the major networks lost their exclusivity with the fragmentation of the information landscape.”
The New York Times: “George Clooney makes Edward R. Murrow a saint of sane journalism for a world that still needs one in a stage adaptation of the 2005 movie.”
Vulture.com: “It’s a relatively easy thing for the mega-famous to walk onto a Broadway stage; what they choose to invest themselves in while they’re there is its own question. With Good Night, and Good Luck, Clooney and his collaborators give a dignified and resonant answer.”
New York Post: “The “Oceans 11” actor’s time-capsule performance is assured, confident and occasionally aided by cameras and TV screens — tools he understands much better than proscenium arches. The audience watches his blown-up broadcasts as he delivers stone-faced monologues straight to the lens.”
To find out more visit: https://goodnightgoodluckbroadway.com/