A8F | Friday, September 7, 2018 * * * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

INTERVIEW | By Maya Sweedler

JeffDaniels’sDreamPart

The 63-year-old actor sayshe never wanted to do

Hamlet, but Atticus Finchis ‘role of a lifetime’

Jeff Daniels is set to return to Broadway and portray Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ a new play based on the 1960 novel by Harper Lee.

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D on’t ask Jeff Daniels tobet against Aaron Sor-kin.

The actor, musicianand playwright is set

to return to Broadway in Mr. Sor-kin’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” anew play based on the 1960 novelby Harper Lee. Mr. Daniels, 63years old, will portray AtticusFinch, one of the most recogniz-able and revered characters inAmerican literature.

In the three years since Mr. Sor-kin asked Mr. Daniels to take onthe role, Mr. Daniels has seennearly two dozen drafts of thescript, one legal challenge fromMs. Lee’s estate and skepticismfrom critics that the beloved novelisn’t suited for the stage.

But Mr. Daniels said he didn’thesitate to sign onto the production.

“You go back to, well, what arethe roles you’ve always wanted toplay and wish you could, and I neverhad an answer for that. I neverwanted to do Hamlet or King Lear, Ijust don’t have the experience withShakespeare,” he said last month.“But when Aaron said, would youlike to play Atticus, I had a feeling it

might be the role of a lifetime.”“To Kill a Mockingbird” reunites

Mr. Sorkin with Mr. Daniels, aBroadway veteran whose most re-cent turn on stage resulted in aTony nomination for best actor in2016 for his role as a tortured sexoffender in “Blackbird.” The pairpreviously worked together on thetelevision series “The Newsroom”(2012-14), for which Mr. Danielswon an Emmy Award, and the2015 biopic “Steve Jobs.”

It was during a Screen ActorsGuild screening of “Steve Jobs” inDecember 2015, Mr. Daniels said,that Mr. Sorkin approached him tolet him know he was adapting “ToKill a Mockingbird” and to ask ifhe would like to play Atticus.

Being attached to the projectsince the beginning afforded Mr.Daniels a unique view of Mr. Sorkin’swriting process. Mr. Daniels, whocame up through the Circle Reper-tory Company in the late ’70s, com-pared it to watching the company’sresident playwright, Lanford Wilson,continuously refine his work. Hesaid that about half of the “Mock-ingbird” script’s first draft remainsin the most recent, 22nd version.

Mr. Daniels described the read-ing of the original draft as electric.“You could feel it, you could seewhere it was headed,” he said.“Just getting that book up on thestage was monumental. It wasn’tjust a first draft, it was a heavylift.”

That reading took place in No-vember 2017, followed by workshopsin January and May of this year.

In between the workshops, Ms.Lee’s estate sued the show’s pro-ducers, alleging the play alteredcharacters. According to the com-plaint, Ms. Lee’s estate didn’t likethat Atticus initially was a passiveobserver of racism and eventuallybecame an heroic moral crusader.The idea that Atticus is at anypoint comfortable with systemicracism departs from the essence ofthe book, they contend. The pro-ducers countersued. All partiesagreed to dismiss the case in May.

Mr. Daniels, for his part, said theAtticus of the play is ultimately thesame hero of the book, as he leaveshis “comfortable little lawyer exis-tence” to take a stand against racialprejudice. Atticus’s faith in the jus-tice system and insistence on finding

the good in everyone emerge directlyin the action of the play, rather thanthrough the perspective of the book’snarrator, his daughter, Scout.

Performing “To Kill a Mocking-bird” live on stage creates both achallenge and an opportunity tomake Ms. Lee’s story more imme-diate and more current, Mr. Dan-iels said. Although he is aware thecast will have to fight past audi-ences’ preconceptions of the bookand the Oscar-winning 1962 movieadaptation, the story touches onthemes relevant to a modern au-dience.

“It’s also fascinating to see howAaron doesn’t have to change athing,” said Mr. Daniels, who spenttime studying the Jim Crow Southto prepare for the role. “All of asudden, you hear Charlottesville,all of the sudden you hear…what’sgoing on in the news every singleday with Trump.”

Still, the production will empha-size the original setting. “We don’twant you to sit there with a copy ofthe book and follow along,” he said.“We want you to feel what that wasin ’35 Alabama, we want you tohear it and see it and feel it.”

“Collective Rage: A Play in 5Betties”: Jen Silverman’s comedylooks at five very differentwomen named Betty. Cast in-cludes Dana Delany and LeaDeLaria. Opening Sept. 12, MCCTheater (off-Broadway).

“Girl from the North Coun-try”: Created by Tony Awardnominee Conor McPherson, thismusical takes the songbook ofBob Dylan to tell the story of aMinnesota community in the1930s. Opening Oct. 1, Public The-ater (off-Broadway).

“The Ferryman”: Jez Butter-worth’s play, set in rural Ireland in1981, was the talk of London’sWest End last season. OpeningOct. 21, Bernard B. Jacobs The-atre (Broadway).

“Waiting for Godot”: Produc-tions of the Irish-born playwrightSamuel Beckett’s classic, comicallytinged existentialist work aren’t sorare in New York. But this onecomes with a certain stamp of au-thenticity: Ireland’s own Druid The-atre is presenting it. Nov. 3-10, Lin-coln Center’s White Light Festival.

“King Kong”: The big apemakes his way to the big stage inthis musical version. The show’swebsite bills the affair as “an inno-vative mix of animatronics, pup-petry, music and stagecraft.” Open-ing Nov. 8, Broadway Theatre(Broadway).

“The Cher Show”: It wouldn’tbe a Broadway season without abio-musical. Now, pop diva andOscar winner Cher gets the the-atrical treatment. And BobMackie, long associated with thefashion icon, designed the cos-tumes. Opening Dec. 3, Neil Si-mon Theatre (Broadway).

Note: All productions havea preview period.

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New Productions onBroadway and Beyond

BobDylan

Yes.

...And yesI own an owl.

A what?

Do you know what a‘Muggle’ is?

My goldfishare namedLeonardo &Da Vinci.

I was marriedat a ComicCon by aKlingon.

The classics orpop culture?

Do you see foodor a painting?

Something ina petri dish.

‘The Arts’

What’s your favoritekind of culture?

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High art

Da Vinci.

You gonnaeat that?

Museum MatchmakerDon’t know which exhibit to visit this fall? Use the flowchart to find your perfect match.

Germ City Dutch Masters Andy WarholHarry Potter Musuem & Pizza

Billed as a ‘fascinating look at New YorkCity’s battle against infectious disease,’this exhibition examines the socialeffects of disease and featureshistorical artifacts alongsidecontemporary artworks.

The Met will feature its collection ofpaintings from the Dutch Golden Age,inclduding works by Rembrandt andLairesse. The exhibition is designed toorient visitors to key issues in 17th-century Dutch culture.

Not quite your traditional museum,this pop-up experience touts itselfas a ‘space to bask in multi-sensory,psychedelic pizza joy.’ Exhibits willrange from a pizza fun house to apizza beach, plus an interactivehistory of pizza.

Whitney Museum of American ArtNov. 12 to March 21, 2019

Museum of PizzaOct. 13-28

New-York Historical SocietyOct. 5 to Jan. 27, 2019

Metropolitan Museum of ArtOct. 16 to Oct.1, 2020

Museum of the City of New YorkSept. 14 to April 28, 2019

The Whitney is taking a new look at theiconic works of Warhol, diving into thecomplexities of the artist’s career in thehopes of introducing ‘a Warhol for the21st century.’ The exhibit features morethan 350 works of art, many assembledtogether for the first time.

This exhibition expands on the worldcreated by J.K. Rowling by showcasingrare books, manuscripts and magicalobjects from the collections of theBritish Library and New-York HistoricalSociety. Visitors will also get a look atoriginal Harry Potter manuscriptsand illustrations.

Lara Korte and Dylan Moriarty/THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

Photos: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Rembrandt ); The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (Warhol ); U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (Germs); BloomsburyPublishing (Harry Potter); iStock (Pizza)

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