Jeff Daniels -- TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD contract?

[natashalost]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 7:14pm

Just wondering if anyone knows how long Jeff Daniels is contracted for?

I was looking at tickets for my mother and I for April, about 6 months after they start performances, but want to be sure he'll be there, as he's the reason I'm taking her. Thanks in advance!

Updated On: 8/13/18 at 07:14 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 7:23pm

I imagine that he will definitely stay through the Tonys in June. It’s unusual for the star to leave before the Tonys.

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 7:48pm

Single tickets are on sale through March 17, 2019, but groups are on sale through June 9 (presumably the date of next year's Tonys). It seems likely that Daniels would be contracted through June 9, though that would be a pretty long run for a star in a play nowadays (7.5 months of performances + rehearsals).

Playing through June and beyond probably depends on reviews and sales, but I could see this running a while if it's good (with or without Daniels).

[TheIan]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 7:52pm

they really should of got Sydney Lucas to play scout

[bfreak]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 8:01pm

I'd expect him to perform through the Tonys but anything is possible. Look at Tony Shalhoub in The Band's Visit this year for a perfect example!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 8:16pm

TheIan said: "they really should of got Sydney Lucas to play scout"

In this production, the children are being played by adults.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 8:42pm

There’s an adult Scout (narrator) AND a child Scout, no?

[LesWickedly]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 8:47pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "There’s an adult Scout (narrator) AND a child Scout, no?"

Children Scout, Jem and Dill are all being played by adults in this production. There was a narrator Scout in a different adaption, but this one is new. 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/13/18 at 9:20pm

As the story is told in flashback, the adults playing kids is appropriate

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 12:39am

So now it’s The Glass Menagerie, but with racism. Okay.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 2:53am

The book is a memory play in a way. It's all told as a memory so I guess it makes sense to perform it as such.

Also, Sydney Lucas is about ten years too old to play Scout anyway.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 11:53am

Even with a framing device that makes this (apparently) a memory play, I'm still a little surprised they cast a 63 year old Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch. Gregory Peck was 45 when he played the role in the film. So I guess everyone is 20 years too old for the meat of the story. Interesting to see how that plays out energetically on stage.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 11:53am

Even with a framing device that makes this (apparently) a memory play, I'm still a little surprised they cast a 63 year old Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch. Gregory Peck was 45 when he played the role in the film. So I guess everyone is 20 years too old for the meat of the story. Interesting to see how that plays out energetically on stage.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 6:34pm

I haven't read the book in a couple of decades, but I believe there are several references to Atticus being significantly older than most other guys with little kids, and how this is strange for Scout. When I did the crappy Christopher Sergel version years ago, our Atticus was probably around 60 as well. Probably older than what Harper Lee intended, but whatever. As far as this production goes, they needed a famous person in the role, and Jeff Daniels will sell tickets. However, I remember that when doing the Sergel version, I found Atticus to be a surprisingly boring role. I hope they make him more than just Human Perfection Personified in this version, although I guess that is kinda the point of the character.

I'm also curious how this "white savior" story will play in 2018. Racism has evolved to a much more dormant and subversive form - it's no longer Atticus Finch (the good guys, not racist) versus Bob Ewell (the bad guys, blatantly racist). People are far more complex than that.

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 8/14/18 at 8:00pm

I seem to remember a line in the book that Atticus is "nearly fifty," so still closer to 1962 Gregory Peck than 2018 Jeff Daniels. 

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 1:10am

Baritone, I agree 100% with what you say about Atticus. Apparently they have done exactly what you suggest with the role in this incarnation because that's what caused the lawsuit. The Lee estate was concerned about how Sorkin had reinterpreted Atticus.

[BKLYN8567]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 6:54am

On a somewhat related note, anyone know if Jeff Daniels did the stage door thing for Blackbird?

Planning on seeing this and wondering if he might come out

[HSky]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 7:54am

Yes, he did stage door after Blackbird.

[persephone88]

Posted: 8/15/18 at 8:06am

It's a really interesting cast - Daniels, Keenan-Bolger, Glick etc. Loved Frederick Weller in the touring cast of View From The Bridge and would like to see him as Bob Ewell. But I admit that I've put off getting tickets due to the adults playing children's roles. And Daniels tackling a role that Gregory Peck has personified...kinda like trying to play Dorothy in a new Wizard of Oz. Hard to avoid the comparisons. Waiting on word of mouth during previews for this one...

[BKLYN8567]

Posted: 8/16/18 at 7:33am

It's big shoes to follow, and I really didn't know much of Daniels other than dumb and dumber, but after Newsroom and Looming Tower, I feel fairly confident he'll do a great job with this.

Additionally as others have said, this will be a slightly different Finch in that he will start out very unlike the finch from the book and movies.

That in itself would make it easier too make the role his

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/17/18 at 12:08am

LesWickedly said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "There’s an adult Scout (narrator) AND a child Scout, no?"

Children Scout, Jem and Dill are all being played by adults in this production. There was a narrator Scout in a different adaption, but this one is new."

Bizarre! Because what is most brilliant about Lee's novel is the way it is told so consistently from the p.o.v. of its 10-year-old narrator (however precocious Scout may be). The film manages to capture a similar quality, despite the use of age-appropriate actors.

I'd rather see To Kill a Mockingbird done with all children than with all adults.

(And, yes, I realize that every adaptation has to become its own property, apart from the source; but most adaptors don't start by eliminating what is best about their source.)

[KFC1991]

Posted: 8/17/18 at 6:41am

^Gaveston, Sorkin wanted adults because he feels that no one wants to listen to kids talk for two hours.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/17/18 at 9:50pm

KFC1991 said: "^Gaveston, Sorkin wanted adults because he feels that no one wants to listen to kids talk for two hours."

Funny how nobody said that when Julie Harris (25, but small and playing a child) and Brandon De Wilde (an actual 8-year-old) were appearing in A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING on Broadway and in the movie.

If you ask me, Sorkin has been dipping into the magic mushrooms again. I can't imagine anything worse than an adult playing Dill, a wonderful character who contributes so little to the plot that he might as well be cut from a stage version if one can't find a suitable child actor.

If I lived near NYC, I would at least wait to hear the word-of-mouth and/or reviews before I invested in the production. But Sorkin is a talented guy and may well prove me wrong, And if his goal is to present a more complex Atticus, then perhaps it makes sense to forget Scout's p.o.v., since 10-year-olds are wont to see their parents as "perfect in every way".

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 8/17/18 at 10:54pm

Sorkin is a talented guy who hasn’t exactly proven himself yet to be an exemplary playwright. I don’t think his name alone guarantees this adaptation will be a great one.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/17/18 at 11:37pm

So do the “kids” now constantly try to one-up each other in impossibly witty, rapid-fire banter?