'To Kill a Mockingbird' to pause Broadway performances Jan. 16, reopen in June
The play will move from the Shubert Theatre to the Belasco Theatre.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, will go on a hiatus from Broadway beginning next week. The show will play its final performance at the Shubert Theatre on January 16 and reopen on June 1 at the Belasco Theatre. The announcement comes just after Girl From the North Country, which currently occupies the Belasco, announced that it would temporarily close beginning January 23 and reopen in the spring at a yet-unspecified date and theatre.
To Kill a Mockingbird began Broadway performances at the Shubert in November 2018, enjoying critical acclaim and soon becoming the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history. In the press release, producer Barry Diller stated that the move would allow the play to continue with "an unrestricted run in its new home." The Belasco is a slightly smaller venue than the Shubert, with 1,016 seats as opposed to the Shubert's 1,502.
After the pandemic closed theatres in 2020, To Kill a Mockingbird reopened on October 5, 2021, with original cast members Jeff Daniels (Atticus Finch) and Celia Keenan-Bolger (Scout Finch), who won a 2019 Tony Award for her performance, stepping back into their roles. On January 5, 2022, only a week before To Kill a Mockingbird's hiatus was announced, Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear and Baize Buzan took over Daniels and Keenan-Bolger's roles. Kinnear and Buzan are expected to return with the production in June.
Mockingbird and Girl From the North Country are two of the three Broadway shows opting to go on hiatus amid the spread of Omicron in New York. Mrs. Doubtfire, playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, began a hiatus on January 10 which will last through March 14.
To Kill a Mockingbird retains the story of Harper Lee's landmark 1960 book, in which the Finch family comes face-to-face with hate from their Alabama neighbors when Atticus opts to defend an innocent Black man in court. Six-year-old Scout narrates the story, tying her memories of the court together with othermemories of her youth and her father as she loses her childhood innocence.
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