AWARD-WINNING ACTOR HAL HOLBROOK BRINGS MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! TO HOLLAND CENTER
Timeless Laugh-Out-Loud Humor Makes This One-Man Show a Treasure of the American Theatre
Omaha, Neb., March 3, 2016 – Emmy®- and Tony®- award winning actor Hal Holbrook brings the longest running show in American Theatre history, Mark Twain Tonight!, to the Kiewit Hall at the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas Street, Friday, April 8, 2016, at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $30 through Ticket Omaha at 402.345.0606, TicketOmaha.com, or the Ticket Omaha Box Office inside the Holland Performing Arts Center. Special thanks to hospitality sponsor Hotel Deco.
Once called “America’s Voltaire,” Samuel Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, preceded today’s social critics with scathing but humorous satires focusing on the corruption and lies of 19th Century politicians and journalists. Twain’s novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer top the lists of American classics and have weathered the tests of time and include subjects that still seem significantly relevant today.
Holbrook portrays Twain as the aging character that we recognize – the white hair, brows and mustache; white suit; and the illusion that Twain is speaking in his time. “Let the audience update him,” Holbrook said. “That has made the show more powerful because human behavior doesn’t change. Neither does its foolishness. That’s the joke.”
The Washington Post said, “Holbrook’s characterization of the great novelist and raconteur is, to this day, a work in progress. The transformation is so complete as to be unsettling at times. The combination of Holbrook’s physical and vocal talents and the potency of Twain’s words is a mesmerizing thing to behold.”
A legendary star of television, movies and the stage, Holbrook has built his career on a variety of roles with no connection to Mark Twain, including Don Quixote, King Lear, Shylock, Abe Lincoln, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and more than 50 feature films.
He won the Tony Award for Mark Twain Tonight! in 1966 and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the show in 1967. Since then, he has received five Emmy Awards between 1971 and 1989. Holbrook was presented the National Medal of the Humanities in 2003 by President George Bush. In 2008, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in Into the Wild.
Chris' Corner 