The new Aaron Sorkin stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" had a triumphant debut on Broadway in mid-December, with the cast headlined by Jeff Daniels earning standing ovations, approving reviews and predictions of a long run in New York and on tour around the country.

Chris Sergel III of Woodstock was not applauding.

Sergel is the president and owner of Dramatic Publishing. It was his grandfather, Christopher Sergel Sr., who wrote the original adaptation of "Mockingbird" for the stage some 50 years ago, less than a decade after the landmark novel's 1960 release. Lee herself roundly approved of the work, granting Sergel worldwide rights to license it for performance. It's been performed thousands of times.

Both Sergel Sr. and Lee are now deceased, and the rights to the play title have erupted into a messy dispute, with the Broadway producer, Scott Rudin, now claiming the upper hand. A British production company led by Jonathan Church had planned to open a tour of the Sergel "Mockingbird" this month around Britain, in cities like Birmingham and Edinburgh, before Rudin's representatives threatened legal action, insisting they alone held worldwide rights. Church dropped his plans, and now the future for the Sergel version looks problematic, to say the least.

That's a blow to Woodstock-based Dramatic Publishing, which says each year "To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of the best-selling titles in the firm's catalog of 2,600 plays. "We never claimed to have the rights for Broadway or the West End of London," Sergel says. "In all of our correspondence with Harper Lee herself over the past 30 years, she made it clear she didn't want 'Mockingbird' to go to Broadway anyway. It wasn't intended for that kind of audience. It was intended for the schools and stock companies that we work with."

HEADING TO COURT?

Sergel won't confirm it, but the conflict is likely to end up in court soon. It comes at a momentous time for the play publishing business. The industry has been consolidating, with the nation's biggest publisher, Samuel French, announcing in December that it was being acquired by music giant Concord, which earlier acquired Tams-Witmark and the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization. Sergel has become aggressive himself: Dramatic, founded in Chicago in 1885 by his ancestor Charles Sergel, has acquired four smaller rivals in the past six years, including Anchorage Press in Louisville, Ky.