George Clooney
Nominated for five Tony Awards, Good Night, and Good Luck recently made history by becoming the highest-grossing play in Broadway history, and the first play to surpass a gross of $4 million in a single week. Good Night, and Good Luck stars Clooney as veteran CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow as he takes a stand against the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. The story is based on the 2005 film of the same name, which Clooney directed. Clooney is nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
Heather Gilbert (Photo: Philip Dembinski)
And Heather Gilbert, a former faculty member in the Columbia College Chicago School of Theatre and Dance’s Theatre Design and Technology program, is nominated for a Tony for Best Lighting Design of a Play for her work on Good Night, and Good Luck.
David Cromer (Photo: Emilio Madrid)
Cromer, meanwhile, is nominated for Best Direction of a Musical for the Broadway show Dead Outlaw, which opened April 27 for an open run at the Longacre Theatre.
David Cromer (right) and “The Band’s Visit” and “Dead Outlaw” composer David Yazbek.
Dead Outlaw reunites director Cromer with writers David Yazbek and Itamar Moses, coauthors of the 2017 hit The Band’s Visit, for which Cromer won a 2018 Tony for Best Direction of a Musical. Dead Outlaw is also nominated for the 2025 Tony Award for Best Musical – the award The Band’s Visit won in 2018.
The 2025 Tony Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, June 8 – the night after the live broadcast of Good Night, and Good Luck – to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2024–25 season. The ceremony will be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and air on CBS.
Prior to the broadcast of Good Night, and Good Luck, David Cromer appeared on a televised panel moderated by CNN’s Abby Phillip to discuss the parallels between the play’s setting during the time of McCarthyism and today’s political climate:
