TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Faces New Legal Troubles

The New York Times has reported that in 2019 the producers of the Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird sought to prevent small theaters around the country from staging an earlier dramatization of the novel. Now, the publisher of the earlier adaptation of the novel is seeking the stop the Broadway version of To Kill a Mockingbird from being staged at a variety of venues.

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The new Broadway production - which opened in 2018, closed due to the pandemic in 2020, opened again 2021, and closed for good in 2022- featured a script written by Aaron Sorkin. The earlier adaptation features a script by Christopher Sergel, and has been staged in schools and community theaters for decades.

This week, the producers of the Broadway version filed a lawsuit against the rightsholders of the Sergel script. They asked a judge to allow theaters across the country to present either version of the stage show. They are seeking to overcome an arbitration ruling finding that the Sergel script has exclusive rights to most markets beyond Broadway, the West End, and the National Tour, which is currently making its way across the country.

Atticus Limited Liability Company, the production company responsible for the Broadway version of the play has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Dramatic Publishing Company, which owns the copyright to the Sergel play.

In its complaint, Atticus Limited Liability Company is challening Dramatic Publishing Company's "erroneous claim that the acclaimed Aaron Sorkin adaptation cannot be staged by any regional, local or community theaters, colleges, high schools, churches, clubs or any other amateur groups anywhere in the United States, including performances via a planned non-Equity tour that will bring the Sorkin Play to theaters across the country."

Read the full story HERE.