For the last year, Melanie Moore (Broadway: Hello Dolly, Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland) has been on the road playing the part of Scout in Aaron Sorkin’s play adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird with her next stop at Broadway at the Hobby.
For anyone who somehow missed middle school or high school English class, To Kill a Mockingbird (which won Lee a Pulitzer Prize) is set in a small Alabama town in the 1930s. Tom Robinson, a Black man is falsely accused of raping a white woman and goes on trial with Atticus Finch as his attorney. Another plot runs through the story, that of the mysterious Bo Radley, who lives nearby but is never seen.
In the book, the developments are relayed by Scout, the young tomboy daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch But in Sorkin’s retake on the approach — one that the Harper Lee estate fought for a while until both sides finally settled their suit and countersuit — Atticus becomes the main protagonist and Scout is no longer the sole narrator. When Sorkin’s version opened on Broadway in December 2018 it broke standing attendance records for a straight play.
In the national tour, Richard Thomas stars at Atticus and in an interesting note, Mary Badham who received an Oscar nomination for her role as Scout in the 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck will play Mrs. DuBose. The large cast includes 24 actors.
Moore, who read the book in middle school, says she feels a special connection to Scout. “I grew up in Georgia so I definitely identify with the Southern sort of tomboy trying to fit in with the boys. I’ve always sort of loved the character of Scout even before I saw Aaron Sorkin’s version of To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Initially Moore was set on a different path than acting. In 2011, when she was 19 she won So You Think You Can Dance and applied those talents first in Los Angeles before eventually moving to New York City. She started taking voice lessons twice a week and after a year went out on auditions and got a part in the musical Finding Neverland. After that she got a part in Fiddler on the Roof and when director Bartlett Sher discovered she could act she got a speaking part and after that she got a part in Hello Dolly. Sher called her for the Mockingbird tour.
She says she loves being on tour and taking the show to different places. “My biggest challenge is the sheer amount of time that I spend on stage. I am pretty much on stage the whole time.”
“People love this book. Harper Lee wrote a story that is so unique to America and unfortunately still so relevant today. In the book it’s very much about the loss of innocence of the children,” Moore said. “And what Aaron has done is not only the children who have the loss of innocence but also our hero figure Atticus Finch who we all look to — especially from the movie version — as this Dad who is sort of immortal. [The play] allows him to have a loss of innocence, to become aware of his privilege.”
Performances are scheduled for April 25-30 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information call 800-982-2787 or visit thehobbycenter,org or broadwayatthehobbycenter. com. $40-$150.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
