TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Faces New Litigation After Regional Shut Downs

BroadwayWorld previously reported cancellations of a number of productions of the Christopher Sergel stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, licensed by Dramatic Publishing, in the UK, Dayton OH, and Buffalo, amongst others across the US.

According to the New York Times, president of Dramatic Publishing Company Christopher Sergel III, who also happens to be the grandson of the original adaptation's author, says he will be suing for damages.

Sergel will seek $500,000 and protections for regional theatres to produce the adaptation. He says the Dramatic Publishing Company 'feel[s] horribly for those affected by the shameful bigfooting coming from Mr. Rudin", and seeks compensation for the losses that came from the cancellations.

Sergel also accuses the Harper Lee estate of supporting Rudin's actions, to which the estate offered no comment.

Following the forced cancellations, Rudin released a statement offering the affected companies the chance to produce the new Broadway adaptation.

In a statement to Deadline, Rudin said "As stewards of the performance rights of Aaron Sorkin's play, it is our responsibility to enforce the agreement we made with the Harper Lee estate and to make sure that we protect the extraordinary collaborators who made this production. We have been hard at work creating what I hope might be a solution for those theater companies that have been affected by this unfortunate set of circumstances, in which rights that were not available to them were licensed to them by a third party who did not have the right to do so.

In an effort to ameliorate the hurt caused here, we are offering each of these
companies the right to perform our version of To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin's
play currently running on Broadway. For these theaters, this is the version that can be offered to them, in concert with our agreement with Harper Lee. We hope they will choose to avail themselves of the opportunity."

Inspired by Lee's own childhood in Alabama, To Kill A Mockingbird features one of literature's towering symbols of integrity and righteousness in the character of Atticus Finch, based on Lee's own father. The character of Scout, based on herself, has come to define youthful innocence - and its inevitable loss - for generation after generation of readers around the world.

Published in 1960, Harper Lee's debut novel To Kill A Mockingbird was an immediate and astonishing success. It won the Pulitzer Prize and quickly became a global phenomenon, with more than 50 million copies in print to date. Considered one of the great classics of modern American literature, the novel has never been out of print since its original publication.

The new Broadway production is directed by Bartlett Sher, and features Aaron Sorkin's new adaptation, with scenic design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Jennifer Tipton, sound design by Scott Lehrer, and an original score by Adam Guettel.

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes