To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway

Inspired by Lee’s own childhood in Alabama, "To Kill a Mockingbird" features one of literature’s towering symbols of integrity and righteousness in the character of Atticus Finch, based on Lee’s own father. The character of Scout, based on herself, has come to define youthful innocence – and its inevitable loss – for generation after generation of readers around the world.

Published in 1960, Harper Lee’s debut novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" was an immediate and astonishing success. It won the Pulitzer Prize and quickly became a global phenomenon, with more than 50 million copies in print to date. Considered one of the great classics of modern American literature, the novel has never been out of print since its original publication.

Tickets to To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway will be available soon. Set an alert to find out when To Kill a Mockingbird tickets are on sale.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the Pulitzer Prize-winning work by Harper Lee, but To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin’s new adaptation of the seminal piece. Set in Alabama during the Great Depression, Jean Louise Finch — known to most as Scout — tells the story of how her father, lawyer Atticus Finch, has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man undeservedly accused of raping a young white woman. However, Scout and her brother, Jem, are taking the heat for their father’s decision to go through with representing Tom as the trial approaches.

Directed by Bartlett Sher, the To Kill a Mockingbird play explores justice and tolerance in the American South.

What to watch for

• Before she died, the To Kill a Mockingbird novelist Harper Lee agreed to having Aaron Sorkin draft a revised script of To Kill a Mockingbird for the stage.
• In the new script, Atticus Finch experiences a gradual moral evolution. According to Aaron Sorkin, “As far as Atticus and his virtue goes, this is a different take on Mockingbird than Harper Lee’s or Horton Foote’s."
• Novelist Harper Lee based the character of Atticus Finch on her own father, AC Lee, who worked as a lawyer and defended two African-American men accused of murder.
• The To Kill a Mockingbird book has also been adapted as a play by Christopher Sergel that debuted in 1990 in Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. This marks the first time Lee’s story is brought to life on Broadway.
• Children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.