Credit: RogerWong/instarimages.com
Photos: Roger Wong
Report by Brad Balfour
Back in the 1950s and ’60s, a few journalists rose to prominence as voices of integrity and trust. At the top of the heap was former CBS European war correspondent, Edward Roscoe Murrow. He reported from the trenches during World War 2 and organized a team of journalists to join him. Afterwards, he broadcast programs about the times — some controversial, some not.
Once the global conflict was over, the Cold War established itself: the Russian Soviet Union wrestled democratic countries for world control. Far right politicians, such as Wisconsin’s late Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, stirred the red scare: an attack on anyone not considered patriotic enough to put them under suspicion of being a
Commie.
McCarthy organized a series of Congressional hearings spotlighting those in the entertainment industry he felt were too far to the left for him and his cohorts. (They included the late president Richard Nixon in his early days.) In the process, many careers and lives were damaged by McCarthy and his Congressional committee’s spurious accusations.
Murrow produced a series of reports on his TV show, “See It Now,” which helped to discredit and censure extremist McCarthy who ultimately fell in disrepute and died at 48 years old.
Fellow journalists –– Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan Rather, and Alexander Kendrick –– consider Murrow one of journalism’s greatest figures. Murrow’s life has been dramatized in several films, including 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” written, starring and produced by the now 64-year-old George Clooney. The film takes its name from the signature sign-off phrase Murrow used to end many of his wartime broadcasts.
The 20-year-old movie has now been transformed into a Tony Award-nominated hit Broadway play starring actor producer Clooney as Murrow. The play has been such a hit that it was the first to gross four million in one week.
The show has received a shower of critical praise as well as audiences (a rich one at that, since ticket prices are generally so high).
With the Tony Awards only a few weeks away — the live ceremony will be broadcast on Sunday, June 8th, 2025 at 8pm on CBS — the multi-nominated production is spotlighted here.
The play began previews on March 12, 2025, starring Clooney in his Broadway debut. The cast includes Ilana Glazer, Paul Gross, Christopher Denham, Glenn Fleshler, Fran Kranz, Mac Brandt and Carter Hudson. It had its opening night on April 3rd and is expected to close on June 8th.