Good Night, and Good Luck – 22 May 2025

I loved the message and the spirit of Good Night, and Good Luck. It is timely and crucially important to understand the difference between news and editorials, as well as the importance of being able to freely criticize the government and have open discourse, particularly regarding abuses of power. As the video montage at the end shows, willingness to engage with political dialogue on television has grown since Ed Murrow (George Clooney)’s time, but so has the ridiculousness of power grabs. The most tragically enlightening message was that knowing something is unjust does not always lead to justice, as happened with McCarthy. In today’s world, it’s all shock value and chaos.

As for the play itself, there were some aspects of it that I felt were not structurally sound that never fit together properly. In this slice of life piece, nobody’s life was interesting because there were too many lives and not enough time to make anyone meaningful. In particular, none of the characters underwent any kind of change. The audience was briefly introduced to a lot of people who had a brief snapshot of who they were, but no storyline or emotional journey. This made it hard to connect with anyone, and the dry writing style certainly didn’t help. It was like watching a live documentary more than it was like truly watching a piece of theatre. It feels like the beginning of a research project, in which the researcher has a good idea but is still in the process of outlining and gathering information— it isn’t ready to present because the data hasn’t been synthesized and the researcher hasn’t yet given thought to how to make it interesting.

One potential attempt to make it interesting came from the live band on stage. I have no idea how that inkling of a story was supposed to fit in to the rest of the world. There were times when the lyrics sung during the transitions seemed like what might be the common man’s commentary on what was happening in the main plot, but I genuinely had no idea what these characters, who had spoken lines, had to do with the rest of the characters or why they were on stage. It added nothing but confusion in terms of storytelling, though Georgia Heers’ voice was beautiful to hear during the transitions. Another thing that contributed to the jumbled feeling was that there were so many people on stage that it was hard to identify who was talking sometimes. If you’re seated too close, you can’t see who’s upstage, too far to the side and you’re missing people in the corners, too far up in the mezzanine and the sound just feels like it’s coming through speakers… unless you have house seats, you really can’t win.

And then there’s the crowning glory that justifies the ticket prices: George Clooney. He carried maybe ~20% of the speaking in the play. He was very strong in this role, but it was a role that didn’t ask that much of him. In real life, it’s hard to stand up to injustice by being stoic, quiet, and unfazed. But this is a performance. Being quiet, saying powerful lines that have no consequences for you, and remembering where to look when doesn’t seem like a difficult acting role. I’d say that this is a case where living the life Ed Murrow led required remarkable courage, stress, and strength; playing him on stage seems a very low pressure endeavor. For all the hype, I’m just not impressed.

Good Night, and Good Luck is trying to get an important message across, but ultimately is hitting the wrong demographic. Young people who desperately need this message about being critical of the media and finding biases cannot afford tickets to this show and don’t find George Clooney’s name compelling. The demographic this show is attracting knows this all too well. While they enjoy it and perhaps feel a personal connection, the ultimate message is that the world is not in good hands right now, and the minds attached to those hands right now aren’t coming in to experience what for them might be a cautionary tale. And as a member of that demographic, I have to say that I was underwhelmed and wouldn’t recommend it to other young adults. Good Night, and Good Luck talks a lot about the importance of including education in entertainment. The show itself would need considerable work to be more than entertainment for those already in the know. It would have the potential to not just be good, but do good if it were able to reach a wider audience. To the production, I say, “good night, and good luck.”

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.