ALABAMA IN THE ‘30S Jeff Daniels as a small-town lawyer and Gbenga Akinnagbe as a local man accused of rape in the Broadway production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
I CAN ALMOST GUARANTEE that you won’t read this statement anywhere else: “To Kill a Mockingbird” reminded me of “Kinky Boots.”
Quick clarification: I loved sitting in the Shubert Theater watching Aaron Sorkin’s production of “Mockingbird.” I was enchanted by it, as was pretty much every other theater critic in New York. But it does have flaws. Which we will discuss after we go over its glories.
FRONT-PORCH TIME Celia Keenan-Bolger as Scout Finch with Daniels as her father.
(1) Jeff Daniels is indeed splendid as Atticus Finch, the hero of Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Finch is a lawyer, a widower, a single father and a gentle man with quiet strength and respect for human dignity.
(2) Celia Keenan-Bolger is equally splendid as Scout, his daughter, who ages from almost-6 to almost-9 in the book. I nominate her now for best featured actress in a drama. A Detroit native, she also does the best Alabama accent of the whole gang.
(3) In fact, the decision to cast adult actors as the children in the story has worked remarkably well all around. Scout’s older brother, Jem (left in photo), is played by Will Pullen, who was in “Sweat.” Dill, their summer neighbor, based on Lee’s childhood memories of little Truman Capote, is played by Gideon Glick, who was so good in “Significant Other.”
(4) The story is all there. In a small Alabama town in the 1930s, Tom Robinson, a black man, is charged with raping a white woman and put on trial. A soft-spoken white lawyer, Atticus Finch, agrees to represent Robinson. But the story is seen mostly from the vantage point of his children (Scout is the narrator), who learn new lessons about the racist world they live in.
(5) The production is high-energy and perfectly modulated from start to finish. Credit goes to the director, Bartlett Sher, although during Act I, my theater guest, RR, asked (not entirely admiringly) “Is this the comedy version of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’?” Aaron Sorkin’s script does find the humor in these familiar characters and settings.
MOVIE VERSION Gregory Peck, left, as Atticus Finch and Brock Peters as Tom Robinson in the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which won three Oscars.
(6) The script isn’t afraid of the real language Southern whites used in the early part of the 20th century, no matter how offensive it may sound now.
(7) The supporting cast, to a man (and woman), is excellent. That’s Stark Sands as Horace Gilmer, the prosecuting attorney, who calls Robinson “boy” in court. And I particularly liked Dakin Matthews as Judge Taylor.
(8) Rethinking Calpurnia was an inspired idea. LaTanya Richardson Jackson plays Calpurnia, the Finches’ cook and housekeeper, who was played as a sweet, skinny, demure thing by Estelle Evans (an older sister of Esther Rolle) in the movie. Jackson’s Calpurnia is more formidable — and completely believable.
(9) But. But, but, but, but, but. Come on, Aaron Sorkin, this isn’t “The West Wing” or TK. When you obtained the rights for this from Lee’s estate (Harper Lee died in 2016, in Monroeville, Ala., the town that inspired Maycomb), didja really feel the dialogue needed improving? I mean, even the screenplay was by Horton Foote.
(10) And here’s why this show reminded me of a much lesser production, one from the spring of 2013. I kind of enjoyed “Kinky Boots,” the story of a failing shoe factory that turns itself around by beginning to manufacture heavy-duty high-heel boots for big, strong, manly female impersonators. But when the audience leaped to its feet at the curtain call, I could almost hear people thinking out loud: “Look at what a good person I am. I realize that drag queens are people too.” My disdain was enormous. I’d known for decades that drag queens were people too. What was wrong with these self-congratulatory theatergoers?
The end of “To Kill a Mockingbird” felt more than a bit like that, although I was 99 percent caught up in the thrill. Aren’t we wonderful people, the standing ovation seemed to say, for realizing racism is wrong and that these narrow-minded white people in the distant past were horrible?
For God’s sake, folks, it’s 2019. Brown v. Board of Education was in the 1950s. The Civil Rights Act was signed into law more than a half-century ago. The first African-American president of the United States was inaugurated. a decade ago. Surely it’s time for a higher, deeper level of understanding.