‘Mockingbird’ Play Publisher Demands $500,000 From Harper Lee Estate

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is proving to be an eventful legal drama. And not just in the theater.

Last month the producer Scott Rudin, seeking to protect the financial future of a new stage adaptation of the novel now running on Broadway, forced at least eight theaters around the country to cancel productions of a 1970 stage version. Now the publisher of the earlier script says he will seek compensation and legal vindication.