CBS2 Sneak Peek: 'To Kill A Mockingbird' Opening Soon On Broadway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The highly anticipated stage adaption of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, premieres next week on Broadway.
CBS2's Mary Calvi sat down with star Jeff Daniels and writer Aaron Sorkin for a sneak peek.
The wait has been a long one -- 58 years have gone by since the book was first published.
Daniels and Sorkin told Calvi this was an awe-inspiring project.
"To watch Aaron draft after draft and change after change to just shape it, you know, it's been – it's a lot of hard work doing a play, especially a Harper Lee Pulitzer Prize-winning book," said Daniels. "It's a big swing."
"For me, right outside 44th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue is the center of the universe. It is the greatest piece of real estate in the world," Sorkin added. "And to be there with a new play, it's really indescribable."
Sorkin kept the book's famous lines intact. He did, however, make one important change by bringing the trial in earlier.
"A play like this is deeply needed. Not because you leave possibly inspired by how giving and beautiful human beings can be in this country, but because it also still deals with our ugliness," said actor Gbenga Akinnagbe.
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The play is in its final previews, and the curtain will open Dec. 13.
When it comes to bringing a masterpiece to stage, the talented stars behind it are just as excited as anyone would be.
"It's crazy," Akinnagbe laughed.
Maybe Harper Lee said it best when she wrote, "there's only one kind of folks. Folks."