Good Night, and Good Luck review: George Clooney makes his Broadway debut in a sleepy newsroom play

One hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.At the Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway.“Good Night, and Good Luck,” the play that opened Thursday at the Winter Garden Theatre, is a big story with a huge set and an enormous star.So it comes as a surprise that the impression left by the dusty historical drama as the audience pours out onto Broadway is so small and fleeting.

Good Night, and What’s For Dinner?The celeb du jour is George Clooney, who makes his Broadway debut — twice.He’s both the co-playwright and stars in the genteel role of Edward R.

Murrow, the CBS newsman who waged a public battle with Communist-hunting Sen.Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.“Good night, and good luck,” was the man’s famous sign-off.That line is spoken many times in this attractive but empty show.

I enjoyed looking at the massive and elaborate TV studio and retro suits for a while.But you can’t light a damp log.This schlep is a project Clooney is clearly very passionate about.Way back in 2005, he directed and wrote the movie the Broadway show is based on, netting Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, among others.In that film, David Strathairn played Murrow.

Twenty years later, Clooney is finally the right age to try his hand at the “See It Now” host onstage, even if it’s laughable that one character says to him, “You have a face for radio.” Yeah, and I have a résumé for astrophysics.The “Oceans 11” actor’s time-capsule performance is assured, confident and occasionally aided by cameras and TV screens — tools he understands much better than proscenium arches.The audience watches his blown-up broadcasts as he delivers stone-faced monologues straight to the lens.He succeeds about as well as the beige script allows him to.

Which is to say, as well as he allows himself to.Clooney the writer has not been so generous to Clooney the actor.The part is milquetoast, like a sanded-down version of Atticus Finch who speaks with the repetiti...