‘Mockingbird’ Mary Badham Joins Broadway Tour


Mary Badham describes herself as “a retired old lady who loves to be in her garden and play with her grandchildren”.

But in 1962, she was a child star who captivated the nation with her Oscar-nominated portrait of Atticus Finch’s daughter, the Scout, in the movie version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Now, sixty years and many careers later, it helps to dramatize the story once again, this time from a different perspective. Badham, who has never worked as a stage actress, is now rehearsing for the national tour of the Broadway production of “Mockingbird”, in which she will play the Scout’s abusive and morphine-addicted neighbor, Mrs. Dubose.

“I’m going full circle,” Badham said in an interview. “This is something I never thought of.”

Badham, now 69 years old, is still a bit uncertain as to how that happened. He says he got a blue call from the production and invited him to audition. The game’s director, Bartlett Sher, said that Badham’s name came up during brainstorming for the tour, and the cast followed him; he said that as soon as he saw that he was doing a workshop, he knew he could do it.

“He didn’t get on stage and that was a big setting for him, but he’s going to be great – he has a bright, shining mind, good listening and sharp presentation, and everything you need as a great actor,” said Serdar. I have never had such an experience to take this voice and see how we have changed and how it has changed. It was so nice to see him in the room.”

Badham has always been a somewhat accidental player. When a talent scout shows up in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., looking for a Southern girl to play as a Scout in the film adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a white Alabama lawyer, he has no experience – Finch – A Black man accused of rape. agreeing to represent. Badham’s mother performed at a local theater and brother (became a film director) was in drama school; He passed a screen test and unwittingly traveled to California to perform with actor Gregory Peck, who had become an important mentor and friend.

“I had no idea what was going on – I was just playing there,” he said. “I don’t even think we have all the scenarios, because there were some words and things that were not suitable for children to hear. I had no idea what the movie was about until we got to the premieres, and then we all burst into tears.”

Since then, Badham has worked to sell cosmetics, become a certified nurse assistant, and even occasionally appeared in film and television. She was never a major animal veterinarian—a childhood longing—but she made a Virginia farm her home with her husband and two children. “I always wanted to live on a farm and have horses and animals, and we’ve had that over the years,” he said.

“I am not an actor,” he added. “Acting is something that happened to me.”

He said he had a hard time watching the movie because “all my friends are gone now – only a few of us remained.” But given new “Mockingjay” opportunities, she often says yes; spent decades talking about the story in schools, universities, and social clubs. “The Nightingale has become my life,” he said.

“This is so weird and I told the guy above – I just feel like he had something he wanted me to say and he chose me to say it and he kept saying it,” she added. “My job was basically to keep this story alive and get people talking about it so we could try to move forward with all these problems we still have.”

And what is the message of “The Nightingale”? “We should try to learn to love each other and be good people,” he said.

tour of the showDirected by Richard Thomas as Atticus and Melanie Moore as Scout, performances begin March 27 in Buffalo and open April 5 in Boston, followed by runs around the country. This adaptation, written by Aaron Sorkin, Opened on Broadway in 2018had a very successful run before the pandemic and sold strongly again Jeff Daniels returns to the cast as Atticus Finch. With Daniels leaving and the Omicron variant rising, the show announced it’s taking a nearly six-month hiatus with a planned reboot on June 1 at a smaller theater. A production in London is scheduled to begin performances on Thursday.

Badham said he had suffered over whether or not to play Miss Dubose because the character used racist language to describe Black people. “I had a really hard time accepting this role because I have to use the N-word and be this horrible, bigoted, racist person,” he said. “I went to my African American friends and said, ‘Do I want to crawl inside the skin of this scary old woman?’ said. They said, ‘This is important. It’s part of the story. You have to go there and make him as rough as possible and show him how he really is.’”

Badham also said she believes Ms Dubose’s character as a morphine addict is important at a time when many Americans are struggling with opioid addictions. “It gives me another side of the story to concentrate on,” she said.

He said he felt more comfortable after a few weeks of rehearsal.

“It’s terrible – I’ll say it bluntly, every time I open my mouth I get mortally scared and I didn’t know I’d be on stage this much,” she said.

However, she said she could sense the presence of others who had told the story before, and that made her stronger. “I feel like they’re with us, supporting us,” he said, “because they know it needs to be said.”



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