Hudson Long as plucky street lawyer Jake Brigance and Anica Petrovic as the comely University of Mississippi law student who is by his side every step of the way are the two best reasons to catch John Grisham’s A Time To Kill at the Group Rep. Not so much its clunky direction and only so-so design.

Like the 1989 bestselling legal thriller on which it is based, Rupert Holmes’ 2013 Broadway stage adaptation focuses on a black Mississippian accused of murdering the two young rednecks about to be tried for the brutal rape of his ten-year-old daughter.

Convinced that local white attorney Jake Brigance has what it takes to get him off on a plea of insanity, accused killer Carl Lee Hailey (Sherrick O’Quinn) manages to bargain Jake’s fee down from $10,000 to a more affordable $5K, a sum the young lawyer accepts though not without some trepidation.

This is, after all, the heart of racist Dixie, and a hung jury may well be the best Jake can hope for, that is assuming Judge Omar Noose (Neil Thompson) doesn’t sway the jury towards a guilty verdict.

Leading the prosecution is gubernatorial hopeful Rufus R. Buckley (Mark Stancato), whose expert witness, psychiatrist Dr. Wilbert Rodeheaver (Patrick Anthony), could well prove the greatest threat to Carl Lee’s acquittal, that is unless the defense can come up with a credible shrink of their own.

Fortunately, Jake’s longtime mentor Lucien Wilbanks (Michael C. Mahon), though drunk and disbarred, is not without contacts in the psychiatric field, news that would be encouraging were his pick, Dr. Willard Bass (Steve Rozic), not himself an unapologetic alcoholic.

Completing Carl Lee’s defense team is Boston-bred Ole Miss law student Ellen Roark (Petrovic), smart as a whip and entirely too attractive for the decidedly married-with-child Jake’s own good.

Holmes’ stage adaptation keeps an audience in suspense all the way up to its climactic post-verdict moments, making neither the trial’s outcome nor indeed our own sympathies a done deal.

There’s little doubt that Carl Lee knew exactly what he was doing when he shot and killed Pete Willard (Troy Whitaker) and Billy Ray Cobb (Adam Mattson). Heck, he pretty much told Jake his intentions when he asked the lawyer to meet him at the jail upon his arrest.

Holmes skillfully strips away Grisham subplots to maintain focus on what transpires inside and just around Judge Noose’s courtroom, a striking black-and-white scenic design at the Group Rep that, per playwright Holmes’ specifications, switches perspective in Act Two to transform the audience from spectators into the jury.

Unfortunately, as was the case with the Group Rep’s Network last year, director Tom Lazarus has somehow managed to add at least fifteen minutes to a play’s Broadway running time, and it doesn’t help that the play’s numerous scene changes take place in deadly silence when a savvier director would have had sound designer Avi Kipper underscore the production with the suspense-building music it needs to keep an audience glued to the edge of their seats.

On the plus side, the production is never less than watchable when the focus is on Long’s charmingly folksy Jake and Petrovic’s fierce and feisty Ellen in a pair of stellar performances from two of the Group Rep’s greatest assets.

Stancato’s slick and smarmy Rufus, Thompson’s cool-headed Judge Noose, Mahon’s very colorful Lucien, and O’Quinn’s rage-and-grief-possessed Carl all have their memorable moments as do Jennifer C. Holmes as Carl’s distraught wife Gwen, Anthony and Rozic as a couple of psychiatrists with skeletons in their closets, and Rosney Mauser as salt-of-the-earth Sheriff Ozzie Walls, and though Whitaker has but one spotlight moment, his confession is a stunner.

Reed M. Campbell, Dominic R. Gabriel, Adam Mattson, James L. Powell, Sandra Tucker, and Steve Young complete the play’s huge cast in assorted cameos.

Designwise, Lazarus situates the production’s two side stages too far downstage to be easily visible, and Noemi Barrera’s lighting design leaves much of the stage if not in darkness, then at least in the shadows, though Shon LeBlanc’s costumes and Alex Salkin’s props are design pluses.

A Time To Kill is produced for the Group Rep by Stevie Stern. John Ledley is stage manager. Nora Feldman is publicist.

Having raved about Theatre 68’s production of A Time To Kill back in 2016, I know how gripping Rupert Holmes’ play can be when directed and designed as the material deserves. The Group Rep revival isn’t without its pluses, but overall, it doesn’t do John Grisham the justice he deserves.

The Lonnie Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood. Through June 28. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 2:00.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
May 31, 2026
Photos: Doug Engalla

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Tags: John Grisham, Los Angeles Theater Review, Rupert Holmes, The Group Rep