Aaron Sorkin's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Will Not Reopen On Broadway

According to a new report from the New York Times, Aaron Sorkin's acclaimed stage adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird will not reopen on Broadway.

The Times writes that the decision not to reopen was handed down by the show's lead producer, Scott Rudin, the disgraced theatre and film empresario whose alleged abuse of colleagues and staff caused him to step away from the production in 2021.

In an email obtained by The Times, the show's Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher and Emmy-winning playwright, Aaron Sorkin, broke the news to the company, describing Rudin's last-minute decision as "incomprehensible."

In an email to the acclaimed creatives, Rudin cited the uncertain economic landscape of the Broadway industry post-shutdown as the reason for closing, explaining that he did not "believe that a remount of Mockingbird would have been competitive in the marketplace."

The website Showbiz411 previously reported decision to not reopen the play earlier this afternoon.

To Kill A Mockingbird reopened at Broadway's Shubert Theatre on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, with original stars Jeff Daniels and Celia Keenan-Bolger returning to their original roles, before shuttering once more as the Omicron variant closed numerous shows in late winter 2022.

At the time of its final performance, the production announced intentions to reopen in June 2022 at the Belasco Theatre with a cast led by Greg Kinnear as Atticus Finch.

Before the Broadway shutdown in March 2020, To Kill A Mockingbird continuously played to standing-room-only houses. Since performances began on Thursday, November 1, 2018, the production had not played to an empty seat, with capacity remaining over 100% for every performance. On February 26, 2020, the cast of To Kill A Mockingbird gave a history-making performance of the play at Madison Square Garden, for 18,000 New York City school kids. This was the largest single performance of a theatrical work in the history of world theater.

In 2019, to culminate National "Theatre In Our Schools" month, Mr. Sorkin, Mr. Sher, and members of the Broadway cast of To Kill A Mockingbird took the play to Washington, D.C. for an unprecedented special presentation at the Library of Congress, in partnership with the Educational Theatre Association. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the special guest, opening the event alongside Dr. Carla Diane Hayden, Librarian of Congress (the first woman in our nation's history to hold the coveted position).

Set in Alabama in 1934, Harper Lee's enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence centers on one of the most venerated characters in American literature, the small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, played by Kinnear. The cast of characters includes Atticus's daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker, Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, and a mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley.

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