‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Heads To Broadway As Sorkin, Harper Lee Lawsuit Settles

Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer May 10, 2018

Justice. Truth. America!

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and producer Scott Rudin have triumphed in a lawsuit against the estate of Harper Lee. After a pair of lawsuits from the Lee estate accused Sorkin’s stage script of “To Kill A Mockingbird” of straying too far from Lee’s book, the Rudin camp has settled. Sorkin’s version will be brought to Broadway, and will star Jeff Daniels, with direction by Bartlett Sher.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” is an enduring text in part because it deals with the depth of injustice in America, particularly for people of color. Almost sixty years after the book’s publication, it’s thrilling to see that in the America today, four immensely powerful white men can triumph over a dead woman writer’s vision.

Rudin obtained the rights to “Mockingbird” from Harper Lee when the legendary author was still alive, with Sorkin attached as script writer. Her estate sued over the script in March, citing major changes to the characters and plot. In an interview prior to the lawsuit, Sorkin told New York Magazine, “This is a different take on Mockingbird than Harper Lee’s or Horton Foote’s.”

Essentially, if Harper Lee, a first time writer in her early-30’s, could write “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Sorkin can probably do it better.

God willing, Rudin, Sorkin, Daniels, and Sher will bring a white, masculine-focused “To Kill A Mockingbird” to the stage this December, make millions of dollars, and show us what art is truly capable of.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO