Hal Holbrook to Return to Broadway in Mark Twain Tonight!
"I think it's the single best one-man show in the history of the theater," Azenberg said. "The thing that might be close is John Gielgud in Ages of Man. I went up to see the show recently in Rochester, and it's sensational. And now it takes him less time to put the makeup on!"
Azenberg first presented Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight! on Broadway in 1966. Holbrook won the Best Actor in Play Tony Award for his performance in the show. He returned to Gotham with it for a short engagement in 1977. He has toured all over the world in Mark Twain Tonight! and has upcoming tour dates set in Colorado, Ohio and Utah.
In Mark Twain Tonight!, Holbrook resurrects the famous American writer, humorist, lecturer and world traveler. He slips into the skin of Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835-1910, a.k.a. Mark Twain and offers Twain's vision of the human race, which remains as comic, and as dark, as ever.
"[Holbrook's] daughter walked up to me backstage and said, 'I want my father to be able to do this in New York one more time,'" Azenberg explained. "The economics make no sense, but it's just so great. It is so stunningly relevant today."