Richard Coyle to play Atticus Finch in critically acclaimed production of To Kill A Mockingbird currently running in the West End

★★★★★
“ALL RISE FOR A MAGNIFICENT ‘MOCKINGBIRD’.
UNBEARABLY MOVING. SHEER EMOTION AND MORAL FORCE MAKE THIS
A POWERFULLY UPLIFTING EVENT.”- EVENING STANDARD

Barry Diller and Sonia Friedman announced today that acclaimed stage and screen actor Richard Coyle will return to the West End to play the iconic role of Atticus Finch in the critically acclaimed production of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird – a new play by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Bartlett Sher.  Coyle was last on the West End stage in the Olivier Award nominated hit play, Ink.  Niall Buggy (Olivier and Drama Desk Award-winner) will also join the production as Judge Taylor. Coyle and Buggy will join the original London company and begin performances from 15 August for the current booking period until 19 November at the Gielgud Theatre.  Rafe Spall and Jim Norton, who are currently playing Atticus Finch and Judge Taylor respectively, will have their final performances on 13 August.

★★★★★
“THIS UTTERLY RIVETING AND REVELATORY STAGING
BLAZINGLY CAPTURES THE ZEITGEIST.”- DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Harper Lee adaptation has been one of the major hits of this year’s West End season, playing to full houses at the Gielgud Theatre since its opening in March.

Richard Coyle (Atticus Finch) and Niall Buggy (Judge Taylor) join Harry Attwell (Mr Cunningham/Boo Radley), Amanda Boxer (Mrs Henry Dubose), Poppy Lee Friar (Mayella Ewell), John Hastings (Bailiff), Simon Hepworth (Mr Roscoe/Dr Reynolds), Laura Howard (Miss Stephanie/Dill’s Mother), Lloyd Hutchinson (Link Deas), Gwyneth Keyworth (Scout Finch), Tom Mannion (Sheriff Heck Tate), David Moorst (Dill Harris), Pamela Nomvete (Calpurnia), Jim Norton (Judge Taylor), Patrick O’Kane (Bob Ewell), Jude Owusu (Tom Robinson), Harry Redding (Jem Finch), David Sturzaker (Horace Gilmer) and Natasha Williams (Mrs Dubose’s Maid), with Helen Belbin, Laurence Belcher, Paul Birchard, Ryan Ellsworth, Rebecca Hayes, Danny Hetherington, Matthew Jure, Anna Munden, Tiwai Muza, Oyin Orija and Itoya Osagiede making up the ensemble and understudies, with Candida Caldicot on organ and Ciyo Brown and Jack Benjamin on guitar, to complete the company.

Set in Maycomb, Alabama in 1934, To Kill a Mockingbird has provided American literature with some of its most indelible characters: lawyer Atticus Finch, the tragically wronged Tom Robinson, Atticus’ daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker Calpurnia and the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley. For the past six decades and for every generation, this story, its characters and portrait of small-town America have helped to, and continue to, inspire conversation and change.

Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence has sold more than 45 million copies of the novel worldwide. 2020 marked the 60^th anniversary of its publication. 

Richard Coyle returns to the stage to play Atticus Finch – he most recently starred as Larry Lamb in the critically acclaimed smash hit Ink by James Graham (Almeida Theatre/Duke of York’s Theatre). For theatre, his other work includes, Macbeth (Park Avenue Armory), The Lover & The Collection (Harold Pinter Theatre), Don Carlos (Sheffield Theatres and Gielgud Theatre), Look Back in Anger (Theatre Royal Bath), After Miss Julie, Proof, Polar Bears (Donmar Warehouse), and The York Realist (Royal Court Theatre / Novello Theatre). A familiar face on screen, Coyle is perhaps best known as series regular Jeff Murdock in Coupling, and as Father Faustus Blackwood in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; and most recently he appeared in the latest film in the Fantastic Beasts series - Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. For television, his other work includes Six-Four, Then You Run, Hard Sun, Born To Kill, The Fall, The Collection, A.D. The Bible Continues, Crossbones, Life of Crime, Covert Affairs, Going Postal, Whistleblowers, The History of Mr. Polly, Cracker, The Best Man, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, Strange, Othello, Sword of Honour, Lorna Doone, Hearts and Bones, Up Rising, Wives and Daughters, and Macbeth; and for film, The Food Guide to Love, Pusher, Grabbers, W.E, 5 Days of War, Prince of Persia, Franklyn, A Good Year, The Libertine, Happy Now, Topsy Turvy and Human Traffic. 

Niall Buggy plays Judge Taylor. His theatre credits include Krapp’s Last Tape (Tron Theatre, Leeds Playhouse), The Old Tune (Jermyn Street Theatre), Furniture (Druid Theatre), The Plough and The Stars (Lyric Hammersmith), St Joan (Donmar Warehouse), On Blueberry Hill (Origin 1st Irish Theatre Award Best Actor - Trafalgar Studios, Dublin Theatre Festival, New York), The Importance of Being Earnest (Harold Pinter Theatre), Translations (Sheffield Theatres / Rose Theatre), The Hanging Gardens (Abbey Theatre), DruidMurphy (Druid Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Washington), The Weir (Royal Court Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre, New York), Haunted (Sydney/Royal Exchange/New York), Penelope (Druid Theatre/Hampstead Theatre/Edinburgh/New York/Washington), John Bull’s Other Island (Tricycle Theatre), After Play (Gate Dublin, Edinburgh, New York, Sydney), Uncle Vanya (Irish Times Best Actor - Gate Dublin), A Kind of Alaska (Gate Dublin). Dead Funny (Olivier Award, Best Actor – Hampstead / Vaudeville Theatre), Juno and The Paycock (TMA Award – Albery Theatre), Rough Crossing, Love for Love, The Threepenny Opera, The School for Scandal (National Theatre), and Aristocrats (Clarence Derwent Award, Time Out Award, Drama Desk Award, OBIE Award - Hampstead Theatre /New York). For television, his work includes Cobra, Will, My Mother and Other Strangers, Malice Aforethought, Grease Monkeys, The Cruise, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Upwardly Mobile, Agony Too, Father Ted, and The Citadel; and film includes, As Luck Would Have It, The Duel, Mr Turner, Sleeping with the Fishes, Rufus Stone, Mamma Mia!, The Libertine, Sweeney Todd, Anna Karenina, and Cruise of the Gods.