To his credit, Thomas appears remarkably at ease, especially with his patient and wise interactions with his children, which communicate easy affection.
Some of the praise for Peck’s film performance came from his ability to express so many emotions without words. Dubose in the production at the Citizens Bank Opera House. Mary Badham, who played Scout in the original film, is Mrs. That realignment, however, removes some of the sincerity of a young child’s growing awareness of prejudice and its consequences. The play is still narrated by the children - with Scout, Jem and Dill all addressing the audience and tossing storytelling duties back and forth like a hot potato - but Atticus is always front and center. But Sorkin (“A Few Good Men,” “Being the Ricardos,” “The Social Network” and TV’s “The West Wing”), whose script is oddly labeled “a new play,” shifts the focus more heavily to Atticus and his moral struggles and personal foibles. (In a nod to the film, Mary Badham, who created the role of Scout, plays the cranky old neighbor in this production). Although that approach feels painfully paternalistic today, it was leavened by the knowledge that the storyteller was his young daughter, who idolized him. Gregory Peck’s performance in the 1962 film made Atticus a truly noble defender of the innocent, including his children and the defendant in trial.
In a subplot, Scout, her brother Jem, and a summer visitor named Dill learn a lesson of tolerance when they make assumptions about their mysterious neighbor, “Boo” Radley.
When her father, Atticus, is chosen to defend a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, assumptions, resentments and injustice prevail, despite the obvious facts and Atticus’ conviction that most people in Maycomb are honest and decent. Lee’s novel, required reading in high schools, focused on Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch and the long and languorous summers of her Alabama childhood when the realities of racism and prejudice shook her little town of Maycomb. That’s critically important in " Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'" (presented by Broadway in Boston at the Citizens Bank Opera House through April 17) because Emmy and Academy award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s problematic deconstruction of the classic novel for his theatrical adaptation requires Thomas, as the larger-than-life Atticus Finch, to serve as the magnet that pulls all the pieces back together. (Courtesy Julieta Cervantes)Īward-winning actor Richard Thomas doesn’t just act - he embodies his characters, avoiding even a hint of artifice. Richard Thomas in a courtroom scene from "To Kill a Mockinbird" at the Citizens Bank Opera House.
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