Out of the nightly CBS talk show which once filled our radio and later our television listening hours, the 21st century has moved in early and finally taken command of the vast audience that created the Golden Age of Broadway which brightened our lives for more than sixty years. There is still a place called Broadway, and its buildings still house the musicals and plays that are hopefully to succeed in them. The “golden age” is having problems of its own under the presidency of Donald Trump, as inflation has caused ticket prices to rise dangerously to the point where live theatre may disappear. But for the moment the general public has been willing to pay up to nine hundred dollars for one seat to whatever is up there on stage. A new generation of managers and producers has emerged as well, and because of the high costs, you will often find 30-50 names listed above the title in the program, which often means there is no producer at all. But the material that’s been chosen to delight or inform or entertain us is unusual as well, and only time will tell if it can attract an audience sizable enough to sustain it.
George Clooney (Emilio Madrid)
For example, today’s entry, Good Night and Good Luck isn’t really a play. It is more a spectacle involving two characters, yet Senator Joseph McCarthy (Star George Clooney’s adversary) is only seen on film in clips from actual newscasts of the day. Other plot points are made on film Granted, all this technical wizardry is fun to watch, but it all distracted me from the story they were trying to tell. I felt like I was at a film class watching fun ways to stretch as film and play makers. Though there was excellent response from the crowd that filled the large Winter Garden, I was curiously unmoved by all the technical trickery. If this is where Broadway is going, it’s leaving me behind.
George Clooney with the cast of ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ at the Winter Garden Theatre, (Emilio Madrid)
Director David Cromer has handled the many crowd scenes adroitly, showing the speed and precision with which heavily populated lower level jobs are smoothly performed by ambitious and fast moving young folks on the constant move.