'To Kill a Mockingbird'

     The current Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird is rich in all of its theatrical elements, with excellent writing, acting, directing and staging.  I felt as if I were revisiting a familiar classic, yet seeing it in a new light.  The two hours and 35 minutes at the Shubert Theatre flew by and I was transported once again by this story and its characters. 

     Screen and television writer Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network,” “The Newsroom,” “The West Wing”) has returned to an art form for which he is less known now, playwriting, in this adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.  In his script, the racism is more blatant and the characters have more dimension.  He also cuts right to the chase, introducing the courtroom drama at the start instead of well into the storytelling as the novel does.  Description of sleepy small town southern life, no matter how well written in a book, doesn’t work onstage.

     Jeff Daniels stars as Atticus Finch, the lawyer in this little town who, reluctantly, takes on the defense of an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman.  That role was immortalized by Gregory Peck in the 1962 movie but Daniels’ performance is every bit his equal.  He was, in fact, the only actor the creative team considered for the role.

     With the help of Sorkin’s script, Daniels portrays an Atticus who, while still of noble spirit, is more human and who possess a delightful dry wit, which sometimes borders on sarcasm, that brings humor into what is otherwise a serious and often sad play.

     One cannot imagine the original Atticus mocking a witness the way this newly created one does while questioning Mayella Ewell (Erin Wilhelmi), the woman making the rape accusation.  When she tells Finch she will answer all his questions, he responds: “That’s a legal requirement but it’s still magnanimous of you.”

     The original Atticus is far from gone, though.  Just as before, this widower father lectures his children on not judging anyone until “you climb into someone’s skin and walk around in it.”

     His 6-year-old tomboy daughter, Scout, is brought to life by Celia Keenan-Bolger, a 41-year-old actress who convincingly and winningly portrays a strong-willed child without stooping to cuteness or affectation.  Director Bartlett Sher effectively cast adults for the play’s other children, Scout’s older brother, Jem (Will Pullen), and their friend Dill (Gideon Glick).  With Sorkin’s fractured timeline, the children take part in the action of the story as their child selves and serve as adult narrators looking back on the dramatic events in the summer of 1934 in their little world of Maycomb, Alabama. 

     The role that Sorkin has expanded the most is that of Calpurnia, the Finches’ black housekeeper who previously was Atticus’s quiet, willing servant.  Here she is played with spirit and understandable anger by LaTanya Richardson Jackson.  Scout sees the relationship between Atticus and Cal as one of brother and sister, and this Calpurnia is not shy about letting her “brother” — her white boss — know what’s on her mind.   

     Scenic designer Miriam Buether is a creative genius with her simple modular sets that allow the story to flow seamlessly from the courtroom to the Finches’ front porch.  Mere outlines of the places ascend and descend or are pushed into place by the actors, making it easy to be part of the drama of the rape trial by day and the comfort of home at night.  The sets are almost expressionist, centering all the focus on the powerful story.  

     I was tired when I went into the theatre and even wondered if I could stay awake.  I wasn’t tired when I left.  I had been transformed.  This is what theatre does when it is at its best, and this production of To Kill a Mockingbird is the best that can be.