Good Night, And Good Luck – Yesterday AND Today

Even more or less abreast of current events, one leaves this play feeling like roadkill. Its power, authenticity, and parallels to America’s contemporary state of affairs is horrifying. One only hopes the piece is filmed so that a larger audience than the elite who pay hundreds of dollars to see it live (also a disgrace) may watch and perhaps learn.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s incisive script, the company’s marvelous acting, fly-on-the-wall direction and selected video, both of the time and current, combine to create a profound experience.

Glenn Fleshler (Fred Friendly), George Clooney (Edward R. Murrow), Clark Gregg (Don Hollenbeck), Carter Hudson (Joe Wershba), Ilana Glazer (Shirley Wershba)

Good Night is bookended by a 1958 Salute to Edward R. Murrow in which the journalist delivered, in his usual no fuss manner, a scathing speech. Though much of tonight’s theater audience came to see Clooney in person, applause greeting his entrance is subdued by an immediate feeling of gravitas. “I have decided to express myself on the way we inform ourselves…We are fat, comfortable and complacent…”
Murrow says.

The newsman had been a highly respected war correspondent during a time live, shortwave broadcasts riveted radio audiences. After German bombing raids, Londoners who might not see each other the next morning often ended conversations with “good night, and good luck.” The phrase would later become his signature sign off.

In 1945, Murrow “reluctantly” accepted head of network, William S. Paley’s offer as vice president of CBS, heading its news division. Management position didn’t suit him and in ’47, Murrow returned to broadcast radio. Despite misgivings about the new medium and its emphasis on image rather than ideas, he moved on to television in the 1950s.

The Company

CBS Studios October 1953. A year before, Edward R. Murrow (George Clooney) and Fred W. Friendly (Glenn Fleshler) created the news magazine/documentary television program See It Now, hosted by Murrow, directed by Don Hewitt (Will Dagger), who would later go on to create 60 Minutes. Writer Shirley Wershba (Ilana Glazer) voices concern to secret husband Joseph (Carter Hudson) about signing a loyalty oath. You know the one, the House Un-American Activities Committee’s  Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

At a weekly meeting, Murrow decides to go after those who tried and convicted Milo Radulovich, a member of the Air Force Reserves, because his sister and father are accused of being communist sympathizers. Charges remained in a sealed envelope. (Today’s errant allegations don’t even include an envelope.) The Air Force never accused him of disloyalty and didn’t produce a single witness. Radulovich refused to resign. “Are my children going to be asked to renounce me?” he asks on real footage. Is this Russia?! he might’ve exclaimed. (He was reinstated.)

Edward R. Murrow – 1961; Senator Joseph McCarthy – 1954 (Both Public Domain)

“You understand the position you’re putting us in? Go after Joe Kennedy and we’ll pay for it,” the station attorney warns. Friendly notes he’ll have to alert sponsor Alcoa that they’re going after head of HUA, Senator Joseph McCarthy. He’s unsuccessfully pressured by a member of the military. Would that those caving daily had a modicum of that integrity.

The relationship between Friendly and Murrow is deftly written and played. Both men shrug off implicit danger of retribution. They joke about it. At one point, Murrow is asked to take a phone call, responding, “I’m too busy bringing down the network.” Neither would have considered behaving otherwise.

We see a snippet of the newsman hosting Person to Person, a job he clearly hates. Liberace is on the screen. It’s also real footage. Lies begin to circulate about him. Paley (Paul Gross) tries to get him to ease up. “McCarthy will self destruct. It’s not like him to back down from a fight.”

Murrow, Friendly, and their news team produce a half-hour See It Now special titled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy. He persisted in referring to McCarthy as “the JUNIOR senator from Wisconsin,” (the truth) rankling the committee head. Many newspapers react positively. It’s impossible to recall all the instances President Trump retaliated when referred to in a way that displeased him.

George Clooney (Edward R. Murrow) and Clark Gregg (Don Hollenbeck)

Senator McCarthy had not yet attacked media any further than requiring signatures. CBS anchor man
Dan Hollenbeck (Clark Gregg) publicly sided with Murrow. On air, he told viewers he wanted “to associate myself with what Ed Murrow has just said, and say I have never been prouder of CBS.” Already in the crosshairs of the committee, he was formally accused. Consequences resonated.

In the 1976 film Network, fired as president of the news division of fictional UBS network and packing his belongings, Max Schumacher includes a photo with Hollenbeck. Like Murrow, the anchor is remembered for taking the risk of defending free speech.

An offer of rebuttal is made to McCarthy which is then televised uncut from his office. We see part of the actual recording. The senator falsely accuses Murrow of being on the Soviet payroll. “Upon what meat does our Caesar feed?” he quotes. On his next show, Murrow responds with, “Had he looked three lines earlier in Shakespeare’s Caesar, he would’ve found this not altogether inappropriate quote, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves….” The quote is later used in Murrow’s 1958 speech. It’s a wake up call.

In 1959, the junior senator and his fellows were finally denounced, but stumbled on until formally terminating January 14, 1975. Irreparable damage had been done. Historians estimate that around
10,000 individuals were directly or indirectly affected by anti-communist investigations.

George Clooney (Edward R. Murrow)

According to CNN, more than 121,361 federal workers have to date been fired during this presidency.
The courts have stipulated considerable rehiring. We’ll see. About 10,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development, two-thirds of whom work overseas across 60 countries, were notified that they have been placed on administrative leave. Every day more heads fall.

The Murrows of today are few and far between. News is under attack, suppression a creeping plague no vaccine can abate, not that it would be legal recourse. Every safeguard agency of the government has been denuded or disbanded; personal rights withheld and/or dictated not by the Constitution, but by power and personal-profit-hungry men and those who cower before them. Isolationism wrecks decades of diplomacy.

The rest of Murrow’s speech, to which we return, was/is urgent, astute recognition of damage to democracy. Accompanied by a mélange of film clips, most of which reflect the country as it currently
flails, its message is timely and relevant.”…There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance, and indifference. It is a fight for the very soul of this republic…”
Edward R. Murrow.

Acting is excellent across the board. George Clooney inhabits Murrow with never showy deliberation. Even his jokes are deadpan. Posture, leaning into the camera, is very like the journalist. Clark Gregg’s
Don Hollenbeck is bathed in fatalism. The actor compellingly mines his brief role. Glenn
Freshler’s Fred Friendly effectively juggles resignation as if a rubber ball.

Director David Cromer adeptly manages the large, engaging cast with infectious urgency. Use of video is selective and appropriate, enhancing, rather than swallowing narrative.

Inexplicable to me is the presence – opening and intermittently throughout – of Black jazz vocalist, “Ella”
(a fine Georgia Heers), performing Songbook of the era. Having nothing to do with the story, in fact, forcibly taking us out of narrative, the choice appears to be an attempted palate cleanser, pandering to a low common denominator who have no tolerance for upsetting reality. How Clooney and Heslov would allow this…!
There are also several moments when the news team is watching tape on a large screen. Our view is partially – unnecessarily- cut off by placement of an actor.

Scott Pask’s scenic design makes voyeurs of the audience. Its verisimilitude is spot on. Costumes by Brenda Abbandandolo show every character exactly as we might imagine.

Projection design by David Bengali is specific and technically adroit. Including period commercials on televised segments work wonderfully.

Production Photo by Emilio Madrid
Opening: Glenn Fleshler (Fred Friendly; George Clooney (Edward R. Murrow)

Good Night, And Good Luck
A play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Based on the 2005 film Good Night, And Good Luck distributed by
     Warner Brothers
Directed by David Cromer

Winter Garden Theater   
1634 Broadway