Free From Legal Battles, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Will Play the Shubert Theatre on Schedule

An agreement has just been reached between Rudinplay and the Harper Lee Estate regarding the new Aaron Sorkin penned stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. The play will go forward as scheduled, opening at Broadway's Shubert Theatre in December.

A joint statement from Rudinplay and the Estate of Nelle Harper Lee reads:

On May 10, 2018, Rudinplay and the Estate of Nelle Harper Lee amicably settled ongoing litigation concerning the upcoming Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird. Written by Aaron Sorkin, the play will be directed by Bartlett Sher and will star Jeff Daniels in the role of Atticus Finch. The production will proceed on schedule, with opening night set for December 13, 2018, at the Shubert Theater. Previews will begin on November 1, 2018.

As previously reported, the author's estate sued Rudin's Production Company Rudinplay over the script, claiming that it "deviates too much from the novel, and violates a contract, between Ms. Lee and the producers, which stipulates that the characters and plot must remain faithful to the spirit of the book." The main concern in the complaint filed in Alabama federal court had to do with the interpretation of the main character, Atticus Finch. It is unclear whether the script will undergo changes or if the Lee Estate approved it as written, but the Broadway run is back on track.

Jeff Daniels, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Will Pullen, Gideon Glick, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Stark Sands, Frederick Weller, Erin Wilhelmi, Dakin Matthews, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Phyllis Somerville, and Liv Rooth will star on Broadway this fall in Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin's new play, based on Harper Lee's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird.

The play will be directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher. To Kill A Mockingbird, which is produced by Scott Rudin and Lincoln Center Theater (André Bishop, Producing Artistic Director), will begin previews Thursday, November 1 and open on Thursday, December 13 at the Shubert Theatre. Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Based on an event that occurred in Alabama in the 1930s, Harper Lee's enduring story of racial injustice and the destruction of childhood innocence centers on one of the most beloved and admired characters in American literature, the small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, to be played by Jeff Daniels. The unforgettable cast of players includes Atticus's daughter Scout (Celia Keenan-Bolger), her brother Jem (Will Pullen), their visiting friend Dill (Gideon Glick), and their mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The other indelible residents of Maycomb, Alabama will be brought to life on stage by LaTanya Richardson Jackson (as the Finch's housekeeper, Calpurnia), Dakin Matthews (as Judge Taylor), Stark Sands (playing prosecutor Horace Gilmer), Frederick Weller and Erin Wilhelmi (as Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella Ewell), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (playing Tom Robinson).

Written during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement-at a time when Jim Crow laws were still in effect in many Southern states- and first published in 1960, "To Kill a Mockingbird" held up a mirror to the ingrained culture of racism in the Deep South. Harper Lee's debut novel was an immediate and astonishing success, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, with editions published in ten languages within a year of its release. The book, considered one of the greatest classics of modern literature, became a global phenomenon, with more than 50 million copies in print to date, second only to the Bible in the number of extant copies printed during the lifetime of the novel. "To Kill a Mockingbird" has moved readers around the world for well over half a century, with editions thus far published in over 40 languages --- including Persian, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Vietnamese, Armenian, Chinese, and Esperanto.