Why George Clooney's Hollywood career makes him a theatre star

The Oscar-winning multi-hyphenate makes his Broadway debut with Good Night, and Good Luck, a stage adaptation of the film he co-wrote, directed, and acted in.

Good night, and break a leg! Two-time Oscar winner George Clooney makes his Broadway debut this spring as the co-writer and star of Good Night, and Good Luck, a new play based on his 2005 film about journalist Edward R. Murrow (Clooney) battling Senator Joseph McCarthy.

This 1950s-set drama straddles screen and stage, a fact that provides subtle insight into Clooney’s career. The 63-year-old actor/writer/director/producer has called Broadway “the venue that every actor aspires to,” but he’s already linked to the theatre in direct and indirect ways. (And that goes far beyond recently seeing his longtime friend Richard Kind in All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich.)

Clooney is most famous for projects like ER, Syriana, and Argo, but, news flash: Many of his other Hollywood credits have theatrical ties. To celebrate his offical arrival to the stage in March 2025 at the Winter Garden Theatre, take a closer look at the theatre-adjacent highlights of his career.

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ER

After toiling for several years on TV sitcoms, Clooney broke out in 1994 as Dr. Doug Ross in the medical drama ER. The ensemble cast includes stage veterans like Anthony Edwards and Julianna Margulies. Plus, the season 4 opener, "Ambush," was a live episode — a great preparation for performing live on Broadway, even if Clooney didn't know it then.

The Ides of March

Beware, indeed! Clooney co-wrote, directed, and starred in this political drama based on Beau Willimon’s 2008 Off-Broadway play Farragut North. As Governor Mike Morris, a presidential candidate, Clooney gets embroiled in a scandal during a pivotal primary campaign.

Like the play, the film — which co-stars Ryan Gosling as a press secretary — explores the evergreen topics of ambition, morality, and betrayal.

8

Clooney’s political outspokenness is a matter of record. In March 2012, he joined Martin Sheen and Brad Pitt in a reading of Dustin Lance Black's play 8, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that resulted in California overturning its ban on same-sex marriage. Clooney played attorney David Boies, the co-counsel for the plaintiffs.

August: Osage County

Clooney has clearly had his eye on theatre throughout his career. In 2013, he co-produced this film adaptation of Tracy Letts’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning 2007 drama about a deeply dysfunctional family.

The movie starred Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts — both Oscar winners and theatre vets — as a warring mother and daughter. Additional stage actors in the cast include Benedict Cumberbatch, Sam Shepard, Ewan McGregor, and Margo Martindale.

Hail, Caesar!

No, Clooney isn’t Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar – or Brutus, for that matter – in this 2016 dark comedy by Joel and Ethan Coen set in early 1950s Hollywood. Clooney plays a movie star whose kidnapping sets a wild and woolly plot in motion, and he’s surrounded by Broadway alums including Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Heather Goldenhersh, and Alison Pill.

An early draft of the film was set three decades earlier and followed actors doing a play about ancient Rome. A big production number with dancing sailors remains in the final cut and recalls the Broadway musical On the Town.

Good Night, and Good Luck

“One of the things I love about acting is the collaboration,” Clooney once told Acting Magazine. We can't wait to see who he performs with in Good Night, and Good Luck — so far, he is the only cast member announced. Clooney stars on stage as Murrow, whereas in the film, he played Murrow’s producer Fred Friendly, who supported the risk-taking journalist as he took on McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch hunts in the 1950s.

On the creative side, Clooney co-wrote the play's script with Grant Heslov, with whom he previously penned the film's screenplay. He's going all in for his Broadway debut, playing a pivotal role on and off stage — making Good Night, and Good Luck a headline-worthy event.

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