Alvin Deutsch, the attorney who represented singer Peggy Lee in her landmark victory over Walt Disney Productions and more recently tangled with Broadway producer Scott Rudin and the estate of author Harper Lee over rights to a stage production of To Kill A Mockingbird, died Oct. 6 at his home in New York City. He was 89.
The Deutsch family announced his death just yesterday, shortly following his win, in arbitration, against the Lee estate. The Deutsch family says it chose to wait until the Lee verdict was rendered before making his death public.
An internationally renowned expert in copyright law, Deutsch also represented a lengthy roster of entertainment and cultural figures throughout his career, including author Tom Wolfe (a client for 50 years), the Broadway composing team of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, librettist Michael Stewart, songwriter Irving Burgee (“Day O...
The Deutsch family announced his death just yesterday, shortly following his win, in arbitration, against the Lee estate. The Deutsch family says it chose to wait until the Lee verdict was rendered before making his death public.
An internationally renowned expert in copyright law, Deutsch also represented a lengthy roster of entertainment and cultural figures throughout his career, including author Tom Wolfe (a client for 50 years), the Broadway composing team of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, librettist Michael Stewart, songwriter Irving Burgee (“Day O...
- 2/11/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive Love, Simon star Nick Robinson will make his Broadway debut in the hit Aaron Sorkin adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, replacing the outgoing Will Pullen as Jem Finch in November, producer Scott Rudin announced.
And it won’t be the first time Robinson has played Scout’s brother, or even the first time he’s played the role in a production connected to its Broadway director Bartlett Sher.
Robinson, a Seattle native, made his stage debut in 2007 at age 12 in the role of Jem at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, where Sher was artistic director. That version of Mockingbird was the Christopher Sergel adaptation that was more recently at the center of a legal tussle with the Rudin production.
Unlike the Sergel version, though, Sorkin’s adaptation features adult actors in the children’s roles, allowing Robinson to age into Sorkin’s Jem.
Robinson will take over the role beginning Tuesday,...
And it won’t be the first time Robinson has played Scout’s brother, or even the first time he’s played the role in a production connected to its Broadway director Bartlett Sher.
Robinson, a Seattle native, made his stage debut in 2007 at age 12 in the role of Jem at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, where Sher was artistic director. That version of Mockingbird was the Christopher Sergel adaptation that was more recently at the center of a legal tussle with the Rudin production.
Unlike the Sergel version, though, Sorkin’s adaptation features adult actors in the children’s roles, allowing Robinson to age into Sorkin’s Jem.
Robinson will take over the role beginning Tuesday,...
- 7/17/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Update, with Scott Rudin quote, additional background Broadway doesn’t need Damon Runyon to prove yet again there’s no such thing as a sure bet: The To Kill A Mockingbird snub from the Tony Awards’ best play category today was easily the most surprising and confounding element of today’s nomination announcements.
“I don’t have an explanation for it,” Mockingbird director Bartlett Sher told Deadline from Berlin, where he’s directing an opera. Sher was nominated in the directing category, and cast members Jeff Daniels, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Gideon Glick got nominations. Filling out the Mockingbird’s total of nine nomations are Adam Guettel (original score); Miriam Buether (scenic design); Ann Roth (costume design); Jennifer Tipton (lighting design); and Scott Lehrer (sound design).
But not Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation, despite massive press attention, public debate, box office heat and critical praise.
“I don’t have an explanation for it,” Mockingbird director Bartlett Sher told Deadline from Berlin, where he’s directing an opera. Sher was nominated in the directing category, and cast members Jeff Daniels, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Gideon Glick got nominations. Filling out the Mockingbird’s total of nine nomations are Adam Guettel (original score); Miriam Buether (scenic design); Ann Roth (costume design); Jennifer Tipton (lighting design); and Scott Lehrer (sound design).
But not Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation, despite massive press attention, public debate, box office heat and critical praise.
- 4/30/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The producer of the current Broadway rendition of To Kill a Mockingbird has offered a compromise to the theater companies hit with legal action over their productions of a previous adaptation of the Harper Lee novel.
Small-town and collegiate theater productions of Christopher Sergel’s To Kill a Mockingbird play were recently sent cease-and-desist letters due to a licensing agreement between the Lee estate and Scott Rudin, who produced the Aaron Sorkin-penned Broadway version.
The attempts to stymie way-way-off-Broadway productions of the source material was met with so much...
Small-town and collegiate theater productions of Christopher Sergel’s To Kill a Mockingbird play were recently sent cease-and-desist letters due to a licensing agreement between the Lee estate and Scott Rudin, who produced the Aaron Sorkin-penned Broadway version.
The attempts to stymie way-way-off-Broadway productions of the source material was met with so much...
- 3/2/2019
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Update, with community theater responses After some community theaters were forced to cancel planned productions of a 1991 version of To Kill A Mockingbird following litigation threats by Broadway producer Scott Rudin, those very companies are being offered by Rudin the chance to stage the Aaron Sorkin version currently on Broadway.
In other words – and remarkably – subscribers and ticket-buyers at The Dayton Playhouse or Buffalo’s Kavinoky Theater might get the chance to see Sorkin’s red-hot play before New Yorkers waiting for seats on Broadway, and certainly before the yet-to-be-announced touring production hits the road.
Informed of Rudin’s decision by Deadline, Matt Lindsay, board chair for The Dayton Playhouse, said, “That’s incredible. Amazingly incredible.” Lindsay said he had not seen Sorkin’s version, and doubted there would be time to mount it by March 8 – Dayton’s planned opening night for the Sergel version – but would investigate the offer...
In other words – and remarkably – subscribers and ticket-buyers at The Dayton Playhouse or Buffalo’s Kavinoky Theater might get the chance to see Sorkin’s red-hot play before New Yorkers waiting for seats on Broadway, and certainly before the yet-to-be-announced touring production hits the road.
Informed of Rudin’s decision by Deadline, Matt Lindsay, board chair for The Dayton Playhouse, said, “That’s incredible. Amazingly incredible.” Lindsay said he had not seen Sorkin’s version, and doubted there would be time to mount it by March 8 – Dayton’s planned opening night for the Sergel version – but would investigate the offer...
- 3/1/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Why Small-Town Theater Productions of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Are Being Threatened With Legal Action
To Kill a Mockingbird is an American literature classic that’s taught in English classes across the country and staged by community and high school theater groups around the world — and now, those productions are being canceled.
That’s the result of legal threats made by Broadway and film producer Scott Rudin, who is currently helming a Broadway adaptation written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jeff Daniels.
According to the Associated Press, Rudin’s legal team has sent letters to community theater groups across the country threatening them to shut down their productions.
That’s the result of legal threats made by Broadway and film producer Scott Rudin, who is currently helming a Broadway adaptation written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jeff Daniels.
According to the Associated Press, Rudin’s legal team has sent letters to community theater groups across the country threatening them to shut down their productions.
- 3/1/2019
- by EJ Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
A decades-old stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird won’t be flying around the UK and Ireland after all. Announced in the summer, the theatrical version of Harper Lee’s novel written by Christopher Sergel and first staged in 1991 has been canceled after notification from producers of Aaron Sorkin’s current Broadway production.
“We are very sorry to announce that, due to a legal dispute, the UK & Ireland tour of To Kill a Mockingbird, has been forced to cancel,” tweeted the Open Air Theatre, based in London’s Regent Park. “The decision to cancel To Kill a Mockingbird has not been taken lightly, and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience this cancellation will cause. Ticket holders should contact their original sales point to arrange refunds.”
In a lengthy statement posted online, the UK producers — Jonathan Church Productions, Curve and Regent’s Park Theatre — indicated that they’d been...
“We are very sorry to announce that, due to a legal dispute, the UK & Ireland tour of To Kill a Mockingbird, has been forced to cancel,” tweeted the Open Air Theatre, based in London’s Regent Park. “The decision to cancel To Kill a Mockingbird has not been taken lightly, and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience this cancellation will cause. Ticket holders should contact their original sales point to arrange refunds.”
In a lengthy statement posted online, the UK producers — Jonathan Church Productions, Curve and Regent’s Park Theatre — indicated that they’d been...
- 1/22/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
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