McCallum Theatre is pleased to announce the return of Hal Holbrook in his award-winning show Mark Twain Tonight! for one performance on Thursday, February 19, at 8:00pm. Hal Holbrook brings Mark Twain to life in a dazzling display of virtuosity, both uproariously funny and grippingly dramatic. It's a tour-de-force for Mr. Holbrook and a remarkable piece of theatre.
Donning elaborate makeup and costume and memorizing hours of the writer's material, Mr. Holbrook put together a one man show, Mark Twain Tonight! After touring in small towns, he brought the show to an off-Broadway theater in 1959. It took the theatrical world by storm and became an immediate hit. After performing off-Broadway, and around the country for several years, Mark Twain Tonight! opened on Broadway in 1966, and Mr. Holbrook promptly won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role, and the Drama Critics Circle Award. The performance was taped for a CBS-TV special, for which Mr. Holbrook received an Emmy nomination.
The fame attending Mark Twain Tonight! enabled Mr. Holbrook to flourish as a starring actor in numerous films - The Group, Wild in the Streets, Magnum Force, The Star Chamber, Wall Street, and The Firm. However, it was his portrayal of the shadowy, enigmatic character "Deep Throat" in All The President's Men in 1976 that earned him an Oscar nomination. He also appeared in Sean Pean's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild in 2007, for which he received both an Oscar and a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Mr. Holbrook's most recent film is I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down, which was filmed on location with his wife Dixie Carter and was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival.
Mr. Holbrook has appeared in many television shows, including "The Senator," and appeared several times as Abraham Lincoln in various network specials. A multi-Emmy winner for his performances in "The Senator," "Pueblo," and "Sandburg's Lincoln,"Mr. Holbrook regularly appeared on "Designing Women" with his wife, and in the role of Burt Reynolds' father on "Evening Shade." He has also appeared as a guest star in episodes of "The Sopranos" and "NCIS."
Now in its fifth decade, "Mark Twain Tonight!" continues to enthrall audiences, with Mr. Holbrook performing 20-25 shows a year. By his own estimation, he has now performed the show well over 2,000 times. Just as Mark Twain brought his wit and humor to far-flung places a half-century before, Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain has also performed around the world, from Saudi Arabia and Warsaw to Edinburgh and New Delhi.
Hal Holbrook knows fourteen hours of material and makes each show different, but he is not simply an impersonator of Mark Twain - he is an authority on the writer. Thus, when Ken Burns started work on his PBS special about Mark Twain, one of the first people Burns contacted was Hal Holbrook. -- www.mccallumtheatre.com
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