To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mocking Bird is playing at the Shubert Theatre located at 225 West 44th Street. It runs two hours thirty five minutes with one intermission. It is an open ended run.

It is based on the 1960 debut novel of the same name by Harper Lee. It was adapted by Aaron Sorkin. Aaron won a Prime Time Emmy in 2000 for West Wing.

Bartlett Sher is the director. He won a Tony Award for South Pacific (2008) and was nominated for eight Tony Awards for My Fair Lady (2018), Oslo (2017), King & I (2015), Golden Boy (2013), Awake & Sing! (2006), Joe Turner’s Come & Gone (2009), Spring Awakening (2008) and The Light in the Piazza (2005).

Ann Roth is the costume designer. She won one Tony Award for The Nance (2013) and was nominated for five Tony Awards for Shuffle Along (2016), The Book of Mormons (2011), The House of Blue Leaves (1986), The Crucifer of Blood (1979) and The Royal Family (1976).

Jeff Daniels was nominated for two Tony Awards for Blackbird (2016) and God of Carnage (2009).

Celia Keenan Bolger was nominated for three Tony Awards for The Glass Menagerie (2013), Peter and the Star Catcher (2012) and The 25th Putnam Spelling Bee (2005).

Stark Sands was nominated for two Tony Awards for Kinky Boots (2013) and Journeys End (2007).

LaTanya Richardson Jackson was nominated for a Tony Award in 2014 for A Raisin in the Sun.

The place is 1934, Maycomb, Alabama.

Scout Finch (Celia Keenan-Boger) is telling her brother Jem (Will Pullen) and their friend Dill (Gideon Click) that on page three in the paper it says Bob Ewell (Frederick Weller) fell on a knife and died. She says how do you fall on a knife and die.

When they go home their dad Atticus (Jeff Daniels) is home. He is a lawyer and is defending an African American Tom Robinson (Gbenga Akinnagbe) who is accused of rapping and beating a white girl named Maybella (Erin Wilhelmi). Tom is innocent and Tom is out to prove it.

In court Maybella lawyer Horace Gilmer (Stark Sands) is constantly making racial remarks. Her father Bob (Frederick Wekker) is called to testify on what he saw. Link Deas (Neal Huff) testifies that Tom couldn’t have done the crime. He was in an accident when he was fourteen and can’t use his left hand at all.

When Tom is on the stand one of the questions he was asked was why he was in the house. He said when he would pass the house she would ask him to come in and help her with something in the house. He felt sorry for her.

Judge Taylor (Dakin Matthews) seems to be a fair judge. The story goes back and forth from the court room and Atticus home. At home he has a helper who is African American. Calpurnia (LaTanya Richardson Jackson). She doesn’t voice her opinion till after the trail is over.

If you haven’t read the book, I won’t spoil it for you. If you have you won’t be disappointed.

This is a powerful play that has not lost its punch. Times have not changed.

Celia Keen-Bolger, Will Pullen, Frederick Weller and Stork Sands were outstanding.

Clever scenic design was done by Miriam Buether.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for photos. Click on photos for this and other shows.