Aaron Sorkin’s Broadway blockbuster To Kill A Mockingbird has been setting records since it premiered at the Shubert Theatre last year. Now, the classic tale will set another by becoming the first Broadway show to headline Madison Square Garden.
The acclaimed show will be brought to the world-famous arena on February 26 for a free performance open to more than 18,000 students in New York City public schools.
“We are going to present what I hope will be a beautiful, hand-made, pop-up version of To Kill A Mockingbird,” producer Scott Rudin told The Hollywood Reporter. “It will be super-DIY, incredibly inclusive in how it’s presented, re-conceived for the space and fully remade for this one-day event.”
The decision to bring the stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s literary classic was an easy one for Rudin and co-producer Barry Diller. The pair quickly noticed a discrepancy in their usual Broadway audiences that lacked strong diversity and youth, many of whom read the tale in school each year.
“The only remotely unhappy thing about what has been an otherwise entirely thrilling and profoundly rewarding experience has been our failure at achieving diversity inside our building, especially where kids are concerned,” Rudin said. “We felt a need to correct it and to take a big step toward making that specific aspect of this production achieve what this play is, by definition, required to achieve.”
To Kill A Mockingbird has sold out every performance in its year-long run and is the best-selling Broadway play of all time. According to Ticket Club data, it was topped only by Hamilton as the best-selling show on Broadway this year.
Jeff Daniels originated the lead role of Atticus Finch, while Ed Harris took over the star billing in November. Harris and current cast members Nina Grollman, Nick Robinson, Taylor Trensch and more will all appear in the Madison Square Garden performance.
While the groundbreaking takeover of The World’s Most Famous Arena will only be open to local students, tickets for other performances are widely available. To Kill A Mockingbird runs seven times a week at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre. It will launch its first national tour next summer, as well as open a production in London’s West End in May.