'A Time to Kill' -- a time to triumph on Broadway?

• Position: News

BROADWAY HAS been good to me. But then, I've been very good to Broadway,'' said Ethel Merman, who never went in for false modesty. And why should she?

Here comes producer Judith Ann Abrams (she is just one of the Tony and Olivier winners for "Kinky Boots'' and "Matilda.'')

Ms. Abrams is a person who I never dreamed would succeed as she has. Judith is working with Daryl Roth, the theater's big-deal producer, and they, along with many others, are mounting John Grisham's "A Time to Kill.''

The writer has never allowed a play from one of his plethora of successful and thrilling novels to be done onstage. The movie, directed by Joel Schumacher, was a big hit back in 1996. (It made a major star out of Matthew McConaughey.) The enduring timeliness of the book, dealing with civil rights issues, might have something to do with the idea of putting it on Broadway now. It opens Oct. 20.

Judy reminds me that Rupert Holmes has adapted Grisham's novel and the director will be Ethan McSweeny.

I am only now just thinking of producer Judy as a grown-up person. When I first met her, she was doing children's shows; now she has arrived! We both learned a lot under the wing of our mutual pal, the actress Elaine Stritch.

Judith Abrams has also been a...