Mockingbird on Broadway will go on after lawsuit settlement

NEW YORK – The Broadway production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” will open in December following the settlement of a lawsuit.

The settlement was announced Thursday in a joint statement issued by producer Scott Rudin’s production company and the estate of the late author, Harper Lee.

The deal came three days after a judge in Alabama ordered a lawsuit filed there to be transferred to New York. The judge said it appeared Rudin’s production company, Rudinplay, had followed the terms of a 2015 contract.

Lee’s estate sued in Alabama federal court in March, saying screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s script wrongly alters Atticus Finch, a noble attorney, and other book characters.

Rudinplay countersued in New York in April, demanding $10 million in damages and saying the lawsuits threatened to shut down the production.