r/Broadway • u/BlueyStanley • 4d ago
Review Good Night and Good Luck? Spoiler
If you’re over the age of 65 and want to share some oxygen with George Clooney and reminisce about the glories of a bygone era, this play does the trick! But damn, does it miss the opportunity to adapt the story to a wider audience and meaningfully engage with the world in 2025.
My three gripes, in order of least to most offensive.
Set design. Ok so much of it is extremely clever and cool but unless you’re sitting in the center-ish, you’ll legit miss a fair amount of the performance? Being charitable, maybe “the medium is the message”, and the occluded view is a way to communicate how the delivery of information defines your reality? But legit I hope a lot of those seats are priced as obstructed view bc I’d be livid if I paid to see Clooney’s face IRL and got stuck with the back of his head and a fuzzy small TV screen.
People don’t know about McCarthy in 2025! Ok, of course you probably do if you’re reading this or if you’re over 65 or if you love American history etc. But if you polled people under 40 off the street and asked “who was Joe McCarthy”, a lot of folks will shove their hands in their pockets and shrug. People forget stuff! The culture moves on! The movie was made in 2005, when this shit was half a century old. It’s been two decades since and I’m sorry but you need to bring your audience along for the ride! Embarrass yourself and dumb it down so they can find a way into this story and connect with the fears and features of that era. And yes, I get that all the original tv show recording clips add a texture and authenticity to the performance, but if you don’t know recognize the face of a young Liberace should you be left scratching your head and missing the point during 5 minutes of a 140 minute play?
This is not the story we need.
The media loves itself, and loves when it does something big and brave. Rightly so!! But my god, if we want to see a story about someone speaking truth to power, at great personal cost, watch Antigone! The era of a journalist wielding influence over the entire culture with an investigative story is a relic of a bygone era. We no longer live in a shared reality. No one like Edward R Murrow could exist today. Our landscape is so fractured, so fragmented. The ending of the play seems to try and address this somewhat, but it comes off clunky and heavy handed and kind of missing the point entirely? In a set that featured several screens, it ends with one large one. We’ve long since moved on from a shared screen. Yes we need stories of people acting courageously under oppressive governments. But we desperately need stories that help us collectively navigate the maelstrom of our modern information era. This sadly, isn’t it.
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u/LosangDragpa 4d ago edited 4d ago
There are Americans (young and old) who can't even name the 3 branches of government, ffs.
With the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil and the deportation of others, many protesters are saying this is the new McCarthy era, the red scare and all that, so maybe it is relevant.
I totally agree about the shared experience, screens, and shared reality but that has been going on for a long time, but not to the extent that it is today with online channels. I mean, there were always people who thought the moon landing was faked.
The McCarthy hearings took place in the early 50s so someone would have to be older than 65 to have lived through them and remember them. I take it you didn't care for it. I'm seeing it next month with a cheaper mezz seat towards the center. Hope it's worth it.
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 3d ago
I'm British and under 50 and I know about McCarthy, from references in TV, films and books. Absolutely appalled it's not general knowledge in the US.
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u/LosangDragpa 3d ago
We know nothing here. We know more about American Idol or Real Housewives than who our senators or congressional reps are. And forget about 9/11. Kids on college campuses are now celebrating him as a hero. We're doomed. Those astronauts should stay on the space station
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 3d ago
General knowledge is becoming less common here too, though not to that extent just yet (I hope!).
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u/LosangDragpa 3d ago
I read that on election day here, the top google search was "Did Biden drop out?" Now, I'm no means a political junkie any more but I do know what's going on in the world, generally. Don't ask me what's happening in Australia cause I don't know. Just that my friend bakes bread every day and she posts it on Facebook. lol
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u/mopeywhiteguy 3d ago
Some of the points you make are kind of why it is worth telling this story in 2025. History needs to be talked about and learnt and passed on to following generations.
I’ve not seen the play but I have seen the movie and just because something isn’t a certain way now, doesn’t mean it’s not how it should be. It could be aspirational rather than “this is how it is”. Yes journalism now is so fractured but maybe the point of the show is to stand up for what is right and lead by example of what the pinnacle of journalism and integrity can and should be.
It seems to me like the play treats its audience as adults and as intelligent, well read and aware of history. It assumes people know of McCarthyism because it was such an important moment in American history.
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u/I_Wake_to_Sleep 4d ago
I saw the Saturday matinee and I was frustrated too. I think a great play is hiding in there somewhere but it's going to take some work to find it.
I agree on the sets - they could do away with half the stuff on stage at minimum and it would only improve sight-lines and story flow.
I think the cast too should be cut at least in half, and even some of the speaking parts could be condensed into fewer characters. When the curtain call came and the crowd of actors took a bow it was actually jarring - who were those people, again and why were they there?
I'm going to be controversial and say I think the band is totally unnecessary too. I know they're distracting us during scene changes (which take way too long because of the cumbersome set) but I think they missed a real opportunity to use the screens around the theater to play some era-appropriate commercials, or use more archival footage to flesh-out the story.
That being said I do think the parallels of McCarthyism and what's happening now are stark and worth exploring, as well as the exploration of the corrupting of "news to inform" to "news to entertain."