Dennis Black (0:00)

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Matt Tamanini (1:01)

Welcome to today on Broadway for Friday, April 4, 2025 on Broadway radio's Matt Tamanini. I did it. I'm up late. It is past midnight, but on Thursday night over at the Winter Garden Theater, Goodnight and good luck opened up. And because of the way schedules are, I didn't want to wait to get these reviews into an episode on Sunday. And my original thought was maybe I'll do a separate episode with the news and then come back with with the reviews. And there's just not a lot of news. So I figured I would get back from my show, do a little work, lay around, take a little nap, and then get up at midnight when the review embargo lifted. So we're going to dive into all of the reviews for Goodnight and good luck on Broadway, talk a little bit of news and then get you on your merry way. But before we do that, keep in mind that there are two Broadway openings happening over the weekend. The first will be Boop. Which opens up on Saturday. And then on Sunday we have the last five years. So what we're going to do is on Monday's episode we'll have the reviews for boop. And then on Tuesday's episode, we'll have the reviews for the last five years because that also has a later opening. On Sunday night, I will be flying back from New York to Orlando, so I won't be able to Record those until our episode on Tuesday. So that is our schedule moving forward, but again over the Winter Garden Theater on Thursday night. Good night and good luck officially open. This script is written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who wrote the film of the same name that was released 20 years ago, which is wild to me. And this production is directed by David Cromer, in addition to George Clooney, who takes over the role of Edward R. Murrow. Also in the company are Will Dagger, Glenn Fleischler, Alana Glazer, Clark Gregg, Paul Gross, Fran Kronz, Andrew Polk and more. If you're listening to this episode, you probably know what Goodnight, Good Luck is about, but nonetheless it follows iconic CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow as he and his team look to go after Senator Joseph McCarthy, who is leading the Communist witch hunt, red scare and attacking Americans. And this show, as the film did, chronicles Murrow's efforts to expose the politician for his corruptness. As of recording time, did they like it? Has not yet released their aggregated reviews, but the reviews are out. So I'm going to run through what we have and we are going to start with the New York Times, where Jesse Green did make the show a critics pick. Green says after talking about the fact that Murrow did eventually take down Joseph McCarthy, he said, quote, that they did not succeed alone. Many other factors and forces were involved is not the play's concern. This script by Clooney and Grant Heslov closely follows their screenplay, for Clooney's 2005 film is not a history lesson. If it were, it might mention some ambiguities in the evidence. Nor is it a drama in the conventional sense, with complex motives, imperfect heroes and shattering confrontations. Rather, it is a slender, swift and healthy exercise in hagiography, burnishing its saints and martyrs to a high sheen. Clooney's glamour, abetted by David Cromer's suave direction, does a lot of that work. Even when the actor is in some remote corner of Scott Pask's huge and infinitely reconfiguring set, you find him immediately torso tilted in the Murrow manor and lit Hollywood like by the designer Heather Gilbert. And in case you miss him on stage, his mug is relayed by the projection designer David Bengali to banks of black and white monitors along the proscenium. Though much of the role consists of verbatim passages from Murrow's actual telecasts, including mortifying, obviously prepped interviews with the likes of Liberace, Clooney performs them with wit integrity and charming modesty. That modesty allows us to think for a while that the real star here is the ensemble, though Murrow and friendly Glenn Fleischler, terrific, make the decisions, usually to the dismay of CBS president William S. Paley. The many See it now writers, cameramen, editors, directors and assistants are often in the foreground. Cromer moves them around like a corps de ballet without a soloist in shifting groupings and sudden massings throughout. Greene talks about the fact that journalists, especially left leaning ones, are often rather appreciated on Broadway, but he ends his review by saying, yet preaching to the converted can be a good role for theater. So is rousing the demoralized with the example of heroes who have prevailed. Clooney's refusal to grandstand as an actor allows his morrow to maintain his halo. These things were possible, the play seems to say, they can be again. No matter that with only three networks and enormous national viewership, the television news of Muro's day was much more influential than it is in ours. Good Night and Good Luck is a powerful and useful reminder that a demigod, or maybe it takes many whose names we don't know, can still sometimes bring down a devil. Now, while the Times did give the show a critics pick, the rest of the reviews were a little bit all over the place. There are some positives, there are some mixed, and there are some negatives. Let's stick with the positives for now and go with David Rooney from the Hollywood Reporter, who said, irrespective of the strengths and weaknesses of Goodnight and Good Luck as theater, the personal commitment of Clooney, whose father is a former anchorman, seems heartfelt and impassioned. There's no doubting the sincerity of his belief that this dark chapter of American history has something vital to impart to us in 2025. Greg Evans of Deadline riffs on that idea. He's a little bit more mixed, though. He said. Good Night and Good Luck certainly doesn't lack point of view or convict. But neither of those things can do much with an overly familiar story, a lack of subtlety and an odd tone of understatement that extends to everything from the writing to Clooney's performance. Charles Isherwood of the Wall Street Journal was similarly mixed. He said, but for those who saw the movie, I assume a considerable portion of the audience, the theatrical version offers little that's fresh or even more fully fleshed out. The production never breaks free of the source material to become a captivating or original theatrical event. Adam Feldman of Time out in New York was actually, I guess, negative. And that's because he did not have a star rating on this, which means that it is under three. So it is a two or a one. The policy of Time out in New York when it comes to theater reviews is that anything three, four or five gets starred. Anything one or two does not. But Adam Feldman said good night and good luck promises the familiar. What you've seen is what you get. It is selling nostalgia for the solemn journalistic ethics of men like Murrow, and perhaps also for the old fashion type of stoic and handsome leading man that George Clooney represents. The show's publicity photos are even, like the film, in black and white. On stage, the characters don't have much more color. In the movie, the camera fills in a lot of blanks that can't happen in the same way on stage. But Clooney and Heslov had made no effort to translate those feelings into language and gesture. However, there were some more positive ones. So let's wind up with Matt Windman of BAM New York, who said, quote, good night and good luck is both a tribute and a reckoning, a stylish, sobering reminder of journalism's power and the price of using it. With Clooney's quiet strength at the center of Kromer's riveting stagecraft all around him, this production looks at the past but refuses to stay there. The message is clear. If no one stands up, history isn't just doomed to repeat, it already is. As I'm editing this, I will keep an eye on Did They Like It? And I'll throw in a link if that does come up to their review roundup. And I will of course include Broadway World's Review Roundup as well. All right, let's get into the news. On Thursday night, I went over to the Music Box Theater and saw the picture of Dorian Gray and I will talk about it in my next Patreon Travelogue episode. But man, is that wild. And something that I've never seen before. And it was thoroughly engaging and entertaining. And fortunately it now looks like you are able to be entertained and engaged for longer because the show has announced that it will extend. It is still going to be a limited run. It is going to play, though, through June 29th. That's an extra two weeks. It was a really scheduled close on the 15th, so as of now, you have a little bit more opportunity to get over to the Music Box and see Sarah Snook in what is. I mean, we probably overused the phrase tour de force in theater. But this is absolutely that funny, dramatic, shocking, really. A wild night at the theater. Speaking of extensions, this one is not on Broadway, but it is off Broadway. And it is the new show by Ken Urban called Danger and Opportunity, directed by J Serial that is happening at the new downtown performance venue East Village Basement. This show has extended. It is currently scheduled to run through April 20th. It had its opening night last night as well. So congratulations to them and a few more opportunities for you to see it. All right, I have a handful of recommendations. First, we have our first kind of look at the new stage musical adaptation of the film Take the Lead. That stage stars Adrienne Belon Haughton, who was also known as the Flamingo in season two of the Masked Singer. She finished in third. Pretty good. Fellow theater person Wayne Brady won. Chris Daughtry finished second. Anyway, highlights from that, you can check them out in the show notes. We also have Robin Herder singing Don't Forget Me from Smash. But the big thing comes to us from the Nederlander Theater. And as part of the kind of Red Bucket challenge stuff that happens right now around the Broadway community, audience members were given the opportunity to bid on the chance to come up on stage and sing for good, not only with Redwood star Idina Menzel, but with her Wicked co star Kristin Chenoweth. So we will have video of that. It turns out what it sounds like is that the people who won the bid, they paid for this opportunity said, you know what, we can't sing. So let's just let Kristen and Adina do it together. And it was a very cool performance. It actually ended with Adina picking Kristen up and Kristen putting her legs around her. So whatever rumors there had been about them not getting along seems to have been put to rest by this point. But I have a video from people so I am assuming that there will be longer and more complete videos and photos and stuff released probably by the time you hear this episode. All right everybody. I had my first travelogue episode hit the Patreon feeds yesterday. I will have my second one coming to you tomorrow on Saturday. Saturday where I will talk about everything that I've seen since Tuesday that is open that I that I'm allowed to talk about. Then I'll have another one early next week either Monday or Tuesday after I am back and able to record it. So thank you for listening. If you want to check all that out, head over to patreon.com broadway radio broadwayradio.com patreon all right everybody, have A wonderful Friday, a wonderful week, and we'll be back to talk to you on Monday.