"To Kill A Mockingbird" to Broadway for 2017/18 season- Page 3

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 7:02pm

Slightly OT, but has anyone read Harper Lee's recently released GO SET A WATCHMAN? It was apparently the novel she wrote originally, before being told by an editor to write a whole different novel. I bought a copy, but haven't read it yet. From what I've heard of this novel, it casts a very different shadow over TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Atticus is Scout's fallen hero. He harbors racist views and attends segregationist meetings. Later on, I read some very convincing articles (from The Guardian and the NYTimes) that the publication of GO SET A WATCHMAN was an act of exploitation of Lee. It was a first draft of a novel she had intended to be a "race novel", but which needed to be greatly reworked in order to convey what she wanted to convey. I now regret giving money to Rupert Murdoch and Lee's lawyer, but what's done is done.

 

It will be interesting to see how this production is handled in wake of the controversy surrounding the publication of this first draft.

Updated On: 2/10/16 at 07:02 PM

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 7:13pm

I have not read it but my mom did. She said it's good but loses what makes TKAM special. This is not surprising to me. As best12bars notes, what is special about the book is the fact that the serious subject matter is told from a child's perspective. Go Set a Watchman isn't. While written before, it takes place many years later. Apparently her editor specifically suggested she write it from the POV of scout as a child.  (Or that's what I read.)

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 7:25pm

What about oona Laurence as scout. She's in movies now so she would fit in well with the rest of the cast.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 7:33pm

ChiTheaterFan, I agree. There is something uniquely special about TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD being told from the young Scout's perspective, and I think it was a brilliant suggestion from her editor. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if this contributed to the following this novel picked up over the decades. It's assigned reading for many middle or high schools in the U.S. Had it been told from the perspective of the adult Scout, as GO SET A WATCHMAN is, I doubt it would have been featured on school reading lists as much. I have fond memories of reading it in ninth grade, and watching the movie. I can't imagine Gregory Peck playing what I know of the original conception of Atticus Finch, and his iconic portrayal probably has elevated the cultural cache of the story.

[BamaEd]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 4:55pm

I had almost forgotten that last year, there was quite the controversy in Monroeville, AL (my home state, Ms. Lee's hometown and basis for Maycomb in the novel) regarding a stage version. The town had put on a stage version for 26 years but Lee's lawyer was holding up rights for the town to produce the play in 2016. This is the same lawyer who found the manuscript for Go Set a Watchman. Lee set up a nonprofit to keep the play in Monroeville and Dramatic Publishing relented and allowed it to continue.

Slightly shady? 

[edcrum]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 5:26pm

Robert Sean Leonard played Atticus (superbly) at The Barbican last year and at Regent's Park a few years earlier 

[Comden Green]

Posted: 2/12/16 at 9:14am

Play Esq. said: "I try to be a positive voice on this board, but this seems so utterly unnecessary. 

 

 

Im afraid I agree.  The book and movie are among my all time favorites but I'm done with it.   The story was profound in my formative years and closer to the time of the civil rights movement but not now.   Such injustice was a shock to the masses when the book was new.  Now it isn't.  I think this is a major misstep for sorkin

"