Sorkin’s ‘Mockingbird’ Adaptation Can Be Staged Anywhere, Judge Says

For several years, two theater companies have waged a legal war over which adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s classic coming-of-age novel about Southern racism and injustice in the 1930s, could be staged in smaller theaters across the United States.

Would it be the script by Christopher Sergel, which adheres closely to Lee’s text and has been a staple in community and school theaters for decades?

Or would it be a revisionist version, written by Aaron Sorkin and produced by the theater powerhouse Scott Rudin, which had its Broadway debut in 2018 and deviates significantly from the novel?

A verdict in that debate came last week when a Federal District Court judge in New York decreed that the Sorkin adaptation — which expands the roles of two Black characters in the novel — could be staged in venues throughout the country.

Now, drama teachers and theater directors may have to choose between contrasting adaptations of a classic American novel, the story of a heroic lawyer and a falsely accused Black man that has mesmerized generations of high schoolers since it was published in 1960.

Judge Denise L. Cote determined that production of the Sorkin version, which was produced by Rudin’s Atticus Limited Liability Company, did not infringe on any interest held by the Dramatic Publishing Company, which contended that its Sergel script was the only one that could be performed in most theaters that are not part of Broadway, the West End or a national tour.