One Night on the Stump, George Clooney Reads Clark Gregg's Smear in Midtown

George Clooney returns to a Theater District stage on Sunday, November 1, for a one-night staged reading of Smear, a new political comedy by Clark Gregg, with Adam Scott, Betty Gilpin and Laverne Cox in the cast.

The address is the one thing nobody will tell you. Playbill reports that the venue is revealed only after a ticket is bought. Time Out New York says it is a Broadway house and that the secrecy is for security reasons.

So the night has a shape before it has a room. Six actors, one script, and a Broadway house nobody will name.

What Is Smear About?

Smear follows two worn-out campaign operatives, who used to be lovers, as they fight over a North Carolina congressional seat that could tip control in a close midterm, according to Playbill's announcement. Gregg, the actor and filmmaker, wrote it and directs the reading.

Playbill does not say which actor plays which operative, and the producers have not released a character list.

The cast, with the credits Playbill uses, is George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck), Adam Scott (Severance), Betty Gilpin (Glow), Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), Glenn Fleshler (Joker) and Shane Paul McGhie (Deputy). The production company rigor + ruckus produces.

Time Out's Mark Peikert notes that the evening is a reading and "not even fully staged." That is the format. Stars read from scripts, and the audience fills in the rest.

Who Gets the Money?

The proceeds go to two state-level groups. Tickets are sold through Oath, a political fundraising platform, which will direct the money to The States Project and The States Forum, Playbill reports. Time Out describes both as focused on state-level politics and elections.

Gregg says in a statement quoted by Playbill that he started the play "three years ago, looking for a place to channel my anger and sadness" about the political system. Brian Derrick, Oath's co-founder and chief executive, says theater "has a unique ability to bring activists and artists together." Daniel Squadron, a co-founder of the two state groups, argues in the same release that state legislatures hold great power over issues such as elections and individual rights.

Those are the organizers' descriptions of their own work. Suite 646 has not independently assessed the groups.

Six actors, one script, and a Broadway house nobody will name.

Time Out reports that tickets start at $500 and run to $5,000, and that the top price includes the after-party. Neither Playbill nor Time Out gives a curtain time.

Why Does the Date Matter?

The date is the point. Here is Suite 646's own count of how the calendar lines up.

Sunday, November 1 falls two days before Election Day on Tuesday, November 3. The play is about a congressional race that could swing a midterm, and it is being read in the last weekend before the real ones are decided.

It also brings Clooney back to a Broadway house after his debut there. Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he played the broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, closed at the Winter Garden on June 8, 2025, according to the play's Wikipedia entry). By our arithmetic that is 511 days before Sunday's reading.

That run was big business. It was the first Broadway play to gross more than $4 million in a single week and finished with a final week of $4.33 million, the entry says, along with five Tony nominations, including one for Clooney as Best Actor in a Play.

Sunday is the opposite scale. One night, no set, and a ticket price that, at the top tier, is ten times the floor.

Movie Stars in the Rooms of Midtown

Clooney is not the only screen name using New York stages to say something this season. Tom Hanks is headed back to Broadway with Kelli O'Hara in a time-travel love story, and Billy Crystal is filling the Imperial with 860, his solo show about the house he lost in the Pacific Palisades fire.

Smear is different in one way. It does not want a run. It wants a single night, a full house, and a date on the calendar that everyone in the room already knows by heart.

What to Know Before You Go

The reading is Sunday, November 1, at a Theater District venue that is disclosed after purchase. Tickets are sold only through Oath's Smear page, which Playbill links. Time Out lists prices from $500 to $5,000, with the after-party included at the top price.

There is no extension to wait for. A reading is built to vanish.

Clooney once played a newsman who told the country what it did not want to hear. On Sunday he reads a campaign comedy, for one night, two days before the votes are counted.