George Clooney during curtain call after a performance of "Good Night, and Good Luck" on April 3.
CNN —
History will be made Saturday.
For the first time ever, a performance of a record-breaking Broadway production will broadcast and stream live on CNN and CNN International.
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The play, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” stars George Clooney as veteran CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow as he takes a stand against the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. The story is based on the 2005 film of the same name.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Clooney drew a through line from the era in which Murrow questioned Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy’s actions to today’s political landscape.
“Although McCarthyism was bad, it wasn’t anywhere near as pervasive as it is right now, the kind of fear that you see kind of stretching through law firms and universities,” the actor and producer said.
During the McCarthy era, the senator used the country’s fear of the spread of communism to label political foes in government, education and entertainment as communists or communist sympathizers.
The issues explored in “Good Night, and Good Luck” remind “people that we have been through difficult times, challenging times and that we survived it as a country,” Clooney said.
“We do find our better angels along the way,” he added. “It takes a minute.”
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Designing George Clooney's newsroom for 'Good Night, and Good Luck'
02:13 - Source: CNN
Designing George Clooney's newsroom for 'Good Night, and Good Luck'
02:13
Glenn Fleshler, who portrays Murrow’s producer Fred Friendly in the play, talked to CNN about what the audience should know about those times.
“I think one thing to know before going in for those who don’t know a lot about the period or about the McCarthy era is just that people’s lives were really being changed by this in a very real way,” he told CNN. “People’s careers were being ended, just ended in a poof like magic, so that’s where all the fear comes from when we talk about the fear in the room.”
Clooney told Cooper that while ongoing efforts to chill news organizations by President Donald Trump make it “a scary time to be a news person,” he believes “Trumpism” will eventually come to an end.
“To the people who like him, they think he’s funny,” Clooney said of Trump.
“To a great many others, they don’t,” he continued. “And so when he is finished - and he will be finished - they are going to have to go looking for someone that can deliver the message that he delivered with the same kind of charisma and they don’t have that.”
There will be special live coverage hosted by Pamela Brown outside of the Winter Garden Theatre on CNN at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday, where she will be joined on the ground by special guests of the Broadway production.
The Tony Award-nominated “Good Night, and Good Luck” will air live on CNN and CNN International and stream live without requiring a cable login via CNN.com/GoodNightGoodLuck and on connected TVs and mobile apps beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
It will also stream live on Max across all subscription plans.
Playbill graphic provided by Playbill.
