John Ball's In the Heat of the Night

Written by Matt Pelfrey

Narrated by Ryan Vincent Anderson, Michael Hammond, Darren Richardson and 4 more

Based on John Ball’s novel which inspired the Oscar-winning film and the Emmy-winning television series, In the Heat of the Night pits a visiting black detective from California against a small Alabama town simmering with anger over desegregation. A fitting reflection of America in the 1960s, this Off-Broadway hit is provocative, timely, and uncomfortably relevant.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, featuring Ryan Vincent Anderson, Michael Hammond, Kalen Harriman, Travis Johns, James Morrison, Darren Richardson, and Tom Virtue.

Directed by Brian Kite. Recorded before a live audience by L.A. Theatre Works.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works
• Release date: Feb 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781580819732

Reviews for John Ball's In the Heat of the Night

[charrlygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received this audio through the Audio Sync program and I finally listened to it yesterday. I thought it was fantastic.

This is a production featuring a full cast and sound effects and it was performed in front of a live audience. It's not a scene for scene copy of the movie, but nothing too important was changed.

I loved the movie and I loved this performance.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

LA Theatre Works always does a great job with their radio plays. There were a few spots, though, where I could not figure out how Tibbs's deductions led to the denouement.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another audiobook I got from SYNC last summer (July 2015), a recording of a live performance of a play adapted from John Ball's novel [book:In the Heat of the Night|37551]. I have seen the film of this several times as I have a bit of a crush on Sidney Poitier so it was interesting to hear different voices for the characters. I also noticed some small changes in the plot -- I don't know which is more faithful to the book but the changes were very minor. This story is an excellent example of a mystery being used to highlight wider social issues. Sadly here in the U.S. these issues from the early 1960s are again of relevance. Many young people are perhaps unfamiliar with Ball's book or the film but they will understand immediately the relevance to current events of a story in which a small town cop jumps to the conclusion that a young black man must be the culprit of the crime without any evidence or even any real thought. Racial tensions involving the police are slightly different now from those portrayed in this play but are still a problem in our society.