George Clooney is set to make his Broadway debut in "Good Night, and Good Luck," a theatrical version of the 2005 film in which he was co-writer, director and star.
The 63-year-old Oscar winner co-wrote the Broadway play with Grant Heslov, his co-writer for the film. The play, however, will be directed by Tony-winner David Cromer.
In another change from the film, Clooney will play legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, who died in 1965. In the 2005 movie, Clooney played Fred Friendly and David Strathairn starred as Murrow.
"I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to," Clooney said in a statement.
"Good Night, and Good Luck," the film version of which also starred Jeff Daniels, Alex Borstein, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr. and others, follows the conflict between Murrow and U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who infamously led congressional investigations into alleged communists throughout the government and accused Murrow himself of being communist.
"Edward R. Murrow operated from a kind of moral clarity that feels vanishingly rare in today's media landscape. There was an immediacy in those early live television broadcasts that today can only be effectively captured on stage, in front of a live audience," Cromer said.
The upcoming Broadway show will be staged in a Shubert theater, though which one, and a potential opening date, have not yet been announced.
— with reporting by TMX
