‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Comes to Dallas
To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s new play based on Harper Lee’s classic novel, is playing until May 28 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.
The play, directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, is showing in Dallas as part of a multi-year tour across the U.S. It’s the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history. It began performances November 1, 2018, at the Shubert Theatre and played to sold-out houses until the Broadway shutdown in March 2020.
Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Thomas plays Atticus Finch, the lawyer in Lee’s novel set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, tasked with defending Tom Robinson (played by Yaegel T. Welch), a Black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell (played by Arianna Gayle Stucki).
A notable name in the cast is Mary Badham. Badham, 60 years after her screen debut as Atticus’ daughter Scout Finch in the 1962 film version alongside Gregory Peck as Atticus, plays Mrs. Henry Dubose in the play.
Badham spoke with Anne Wicks, the Ann Kimball Johnson director of education and opportunity at the Bush Institute, during the annual Laura Bush Book Club program at the George W. Bush Presidential Center earlier in May.
A native of Alabama herself, Badham spoke about the significance of the novel to her during her conversation at the Bush Center.
“It’s got all of life’s lessons that, obviously, we still haven’t learned,” she said of the novel. “It gives parents the ability to learn how to deal with some of these problems that our children are still dealing with. Racism and bigotry hasn’t gone anywhere.”
“That’s why this book is important – because it answers current issues that we’re still dealing with that need to be dealt with some more,” she added.
Bedham also spoke about her relationship with the late Peck, who died in 2003.
“This was his favorite film, and this was so important to him,” she said of Peck. “What you see up on the screen – that’s what we got at home. I mean, he was just such a wonderful, patient, kind, and loving human being.”
Tickets to the play showing at the Music Hall are available on Broadway Dallas’ website or by calling 800-982-2787.
