How David Caparelliotis Assembled The All-Star Ensemble of GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

For the last two years, casting director David Caparelliotis has been hard at work, piecing together the puzzle that is the ensemble cast of Good Night, and Good Luck. A whopping 21 actors will take the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre this spring when the new play, co-written by and starring George Clooney, begins previews on March 12.

In addition to Clooney, who stars as broadcast journalism icon Edward R. Murrow, the supporting company includes: Mac Brandt as Colonel Anderson, Will Dagger as Don Hewitt, Christopher Denham as John Aaron, Glenn Fleshler as Fred Friendly, Ilana Glazer as Shirley Wershba, Clark Gregg as Don Hollenbeck, Paul Gross as William F. Paley, Georgia Heers as Ella, Carter Hudson as Joe Wershba, Fran Kranz as Palmer Williams, Jennifer Morris as Millie Green, Michael Nathanson as Eddie Scott, Andrew Polk as Charlie Mack, Aaron Roman Weiner as Don Surine with R. Ward Duffy, Joe Forbrich,  Imani Rousselle, Greg Stuhr, JD Taylor, and Sophia Tzougros rounding out the ensemble. 

What exactly goes into casting a show with such star-power? Caparelliotis checked in with BroadwayWorld to chat about his process in assembling this epic ensemble.

Where does the process start for you on a project like this? 

When I get brought onto a project, oftentimes there's a star attached like in this case with George. When we first started working on this, George was not going to play Edward R. Murrow. I worked with David [Cromer] and George and Grant [Heslov] and read the script and came up with some lists of actors that might be good for each role. And we did a table read and it was really successful. It was good to understand what the play was and what the function of the archival material in the play was going to be, in relationship to the actual characters on stage.

David and George and Grant sort of went away, as often happens after a reading, and talked about the material. When it came back to my desk, George and Grant had done a rewrite of the script and George was playing Murrow. So my job became easier that day! 

I'm sure it did!

Of course, so much of the climate of Broadway right now is based on star casting and who you can get above the marquee. Obviously, it's easier to start with somebody like George, who is arguably one of the biggest stars on the planet.  

Oftentimes when I get a Broadway script put on my desk, it's from producers who say, okay, "This will only get done if we find a star." So a lot of times the first three to six months to nine months to a year, is just trying to find your version of George Clooney to then be the tent pole around which you build the rest of the production. 

George and Grant and David spoke and said, "Listen, we want the best New York theater actors around. That's who we want to populate this world." There was not a song and dance about getting other "stars." That, as a casting director, is music to my ears.

Honestly, it's been one of the purest casting processes that I've been involved in, because it really did come down to finding the best actors for the role. David Cromer is one of the best directors working. I totally do believe that he is a genius. His ability as a dramaturg and as a director to acutely understand the characters and what he is wanting and looking for is incredibly helpful as a casting director. And then we have George, who grew up in this very field- around journalists. He knew so many of these characters, like Joe and Shirley Wershba, played by Carter Hudson and Ilana Glazer.

I'm sure having his perspective on those characters has been helpful for someone in your role...

Yes! So Ilana Glazer for example... you know, we know them from standup and then there's Broad City, and she's a f***ing genius! We also had no idea if they would ever entertain doing a play. So for the reading, we sent the script to their agent and said, "Hey, I have no idea if she would be interested in a play. Hasn't come up before, but we did well for her to take part in this." So then part of the excitement as well is bringing someone to the table who's a little bit unexpected, even to themselves! After the first reading, she went back to her agent and said, "Okay, that was really f***ing cool!" And so it came back to us that she would be interested in doing the production and so we offered her the role. So that's one example of how it goes from page to stage. This is what casting directors do. It's our job to pick outside the box and say, "Hey, what would this look like?"

Then rounding out the table, we have people like Clark Gregg, who has been a theater actor in the city forever, has been a Marvel guy... and so we're bringing him back to the stage. Then, Paul Gross- he's sort of a cult figure in the United States because of his work on Slings and Arrows, this Canadian TV show. So getting him involved, getting him to come over from Canada and do it is another awesome component to it. 

I think I counted that 11 people will make their Broadway debuts in this...

Oh my God, it's amazing to me. There's an actor by the name of JD Taylor who I have known for probably 20 years and I cast him in things... but he's never been on Broadway. He and his wife are working, New York theatre actors. For me to have any part in being able to offer JD access to an opportunity to be on Broadway and then it happens is like... it doesn't get better for me. 

When you're putting together a cast that is this big, how important is their chemistry and how does that factor into what you do?

As we're putting it together you want to make sure that everybody feels of the period to begin with. There's some terrific actors who are just sort of inextricably contemporary, so you really want to make sure that the world feels populated by people that you believe in this era.

And then when you're approaching actors at this level, you have to say to them, "Listen, you know what, this play is in large part an ensemble play. George is the central figure, but all of these other characters have their unique contributions to it, so we need actors that are really in this for the right reasons. A lot of them are not going to have their 11 o'clock moment, where their character has a searing monologue." In this case, we have a group of actors who decided that the worth here is: being a part of this story at this particular time in the United States... because the play has only gotten more relevant to our times. If this was a work of fiction, it's almost like a playwright would have written this in answer to what's going on right now. 

I think our actors all went into it saying, "Yeah, I'm cool with my part. I'm cool with being part of the totality of the whole." 

As one of the instigators of the whole process, what is it like for you getting to see the end result? 

Completely gratifying and humbling, honestly. I've been doing this for almost 30 years, and there is still that part of you that's like, holy sh*t, I'm casting a Broadway play with George Clooney and 21 actors! It's humbling. It's a lot of pressure, but it's why I do it.

The interesting thing though is that I would say to you that I will get as much satisfaction from sitting around the table at the first read-through and seeing these actors read it as I will get on opening night. It's a different kind of high, but it's still thrilling. I feel incredibly fortunate that I get to see the labors of my work incarnate in a way that a lot of people don't get to see what their work creates. It's really f***ing cool. 

It really is. There really needs to be a Tonys category for what casting directors do...

I think it's crazy that there isn't. There's movement- Bernie Telsey has been a champion for casting directors since the dawn of time. He has definitively used his success and power for good and he was instrumental in getting casting directors to the table for an Oscar, along with the Casting Society, which used to be called the Casting Society of America. I have to believe now that that is going to open the door for much more serious conversations about a Tony Award for casting. Casting directors are artists in the way that everybody else that is Tony eligible are artists. Hopefully we're getting to a place where the art of it is going to be recognized. 

Good Night, and Good Luck will open at the Winter Garden Theatre on April 3, 2025. View the full 2025 Spring Preview!