CNN will air “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the Tony-nominated play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, live on Saturday, June 7, the network announced Thursday.
The penultimate performance at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre will air live in a historic Broadway first.
“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to do something that’s never been done. CNN is the perfect place to bring this story of courage to so many more people than we could have ever hoped. Live TV. No net. Buckle up everyone,” Clooney said in a statement.
“’Good Night, and Good Luck’ is not just a celebration of a golden age in TV journalism,” CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement. “It’s also about the importance of the free press and the need for strong news organizations to report the facts in a fair-minded way. That’s something we still care deeply about.”
Earlier this week, the play made a different kind of history on Broadway with the announcement that it had recouped $9.5 million investment in just seven and a half weeks. The production has become the highest-grossing play in Broadway history and the first to exceed $4 million in a single week, Playbill reported.
On June 7, CNN will host a pre-show outside of the theater and a post-play special to discuss the production and the state of global journalism.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” will stream live, without requiring a cable log-in, via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps at 7 p.m. ET.
The play is adapted from Clooney’s 2005 film of the same name, which starred David Strathairn as the legendary journalist who was the first to call out the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy on the air in 1954.
In his address, Murrow said that McCarthy’s Red Scare had “caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies.” He signed off with the phrase, “Good night, and good luck.”
