Powerful 'To Kill a Mockingbird' national tour makes classic story even more relevant now

The show: "Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird," adapted by Aaron Sorkin from the book by Harper Lee

Presented by: Broadway in Boston as the second stop on the national tour

What it’s about: Scout Finch (Melanie Moore) remembers her Alabama childhood, particularly a pivotal time in 1934 when her principled lawyer father, Atticus (Richard Thomas), defends Tom Robinson (Yaegel T. Welch), a Black man accused of raping a white woman. Writer Aaron Sorkin puts Lee’s classic story of racial injustice into focus for the 21st century, with Atticus being forced to wrestle with the prejudices of friends and neighbors and with when it's more important to speak up than to be "respectful." Sorkin also gives greater voice than the book or beloved film to Black characters Robinson and particularly housekeeper Calpurnia (Jacqueline Williams) and how they see and respond to the town and its residents.

See it or not: Go, and bring kids who are old enough to understand this. The powerful adaptation both is and isn’t the classic story you may wistfully treasure, with Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher placing more direct emphasis on the racism, hatred and small-mindedness of some Americans, and the issues and thinking that are sadly as relevant today. "Mockingbird" is still largely a white man’s story, told by a white man based on a white woman’s book, but Atticus here is newly flawed and complicated in ways so many white people are when wrestling with these issues and new perspectives. Be aware that the play is not all dark, though. There is also plenty of often unexpected humor to help make the story more relatable and characters more lovable, which serve to make its more complex moments that much more gut-wrenching.

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Highlights: The performances are outstanding from top to bottom, from Thomas' passionate portrayal of Atticus to the adult actors so believably playing the narrating children trying to understand the world’s ills (Moore's earnest and scrappy Scout, Justin Mark's fiery brother Jem and Steven Lee Johnson's endearing friend Dill). Welch is riveting as a man whose good-heartedness has doomed him because of his race; it’s impossible to take your eyes off Arianna Gayle Stucki as Mayella Ewell, a hate-spewing court witness who is surely a victim, but not of Tom Robinson’s; and Joey Collins plays her father, Bob Ewell, as mean and sinister through and through. Jacqueline Williams gives a towering portrayal of Black housekeeper Calpurnia, who provides the perspective and seering yet often understated commentary that Atticus — and, surely, many in the audience — needs to hear.

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Worth noting: Sorkin’s script plays with both time and the book’s storylines, with the children relating the stories connected to Tom Robinson’s trial as well as speculation regarding oddly reclusive neighbor Boo Radley (Travis Johns) in flashbacks out of their usual order. The trial is immediately front and center, rather than toward the end of the tale as in the book and 1962 movie, and Sher’s direction and the ensemble fluidly keep the characters and set pieces moving in and out as the trial’s repercussions tie all of Scout’s memories of that summer together.

Fun fact: Mary Badham, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her acting debut as Scout in the 1962 film of "To Kill a Mockingbird," came out of retirement to join this tour as venomous neighbor Mrs. Henry Dubose.

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One more thing: “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history, playing to sold-out houses from its opening Nov. 1, 2018 until the March 2020 Broadway shutdown. In February 2020, it became the first-ever Broadway play at Madison Square Garden, presented to about 18,000 New York City public school students — the largest attendance at a single performance of a play ever in world theater. The script was also presented by Eventide Theatre Company in Dennis in a popular 2019 production that played even while the show was on Broadway.

If you go: Through April 17 at the Citizens Bank Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston; https://boston.broadway.com/

Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a powerful, relevant update of classic story