Aaron Sorkin has found his Broadway follow-up to To Kill A Mockingbird: The West Wing creator will pen a new book for the classic Lerner & Loewe musical Camelot.
The Lincoln Center Theater revival of the 1960 musical will reunite Sorkin and Mockingbird director Bartlett Sher, with previews set to begin at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on Thursday, November 3, with an opening night of Thursday, December 8. Casting and design team will be announced later.
In announcing the project today, Lincoln Center Theater described “a new version of the classic tale” and said the musical will be “reimagined for the 21st century.” Sorkin’s new book will be based on the original by Alan Jay Lerner.
Camelot, based on T.H. White’s 1958 novel The Once and Future King, features an original score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, including now-classic songs “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” and the title song.
The musical tells the story of such mythical characters as King Arthur, Queen Guenevere, and Sir Lancelot. Lincoln Center describes the tale as “a story about the quest for democracy, striving for justice, and the tragic struggle between passion and aspiration, between lovers and kingdoms.”
First staged in 1960 as Lerner & Loewe’s follow-up to My Fair Lady, the original Camelot starred Richard Burton as Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guenevere, and Robert Goulet as Lancelot. The production won four Tony Awards, including Best Actor for Burton. Subsequent Broadway revivals included a 1980 production
with Burton, Christine Ebersole and Richard Muenz, and a 1981 revival with Richard Harris, Meg Bussert and Muenz. In 1993, Camelot returned to Broadway with Goulet in the Arthur role.
A 1967 film version starred Harris as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere and Franco Nero as Lancelot.
After Jacqueline Kennedy said the 1960 musical and cast album were favorites of her late husband, the musical became associated with the Kennedy Administration, with the JFK years in office becoming known as the Camelot Era.
Sorkin, most recently in the news for his Oscar-nominated Being the Ricardos, last teamed with Sher on stage in the 2018 adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The production scored nine Tony Award nominations, winning for Celia Keenan-Bolger’s portrayal of Scout Finch. Sher was nominated for his direction, but both Sorkin and the play itself were famously snubbed.
The Broadway production of To Kill A Mockingbird currently is on hiatus, with plans to return at an as-yet-undetermined date with Greg Kinnear in the Atticus role originated by Jeff Daniels and later played by Ed Harris. A touring production stars Richard Thomas and features Mary Badham (Scout in the 1962 film version) as racist neighbor Mrs. Dubose.