Hal Holbrook Superb In Mark Twain Show

Wit, Acting Talent

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, August 16, 1967

Sharp, timeless wit and superior acting talent combined to make Hal Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight” last night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center a perfect evening.

And the audience of some 7,000 seemed to agree, as they gave the versatile Mr. Holbrook a standing ovation at the close of his performance and laughed heartily throughout the evening.

For those who have seen all the varied offerings of SPAC last season and this year to date, the sound of thousands of voices raised in repeated laughter came as a sudden, surprising and, heartwarming experience.

The large amphitheatre and surrounding lawns, as unbelievable as it may have seemed to many, actually is ideal for the intimate type of show of the Holbrook-Twain variety.

Thanks to an excellently-functioning concealed mike in his vest, Mr. Holbrook was perfectly audible throughout the evening, as he puffed on a perpetual cigar, roamed around the stage, first standing at the old-fashioned podium as he conducted his “services,” then sitting in an overstuffed chair to tell an honest to goodness ghost story, or perching on the edge of a library table to discourse on that strange creature-man.

To have seen Hal Holbrook as the handsome, 41-year-old man offstage, then see him as Twain at 70 with three hours’ make-up involved is miraculous to behold.

Choice lines ranged from “man is the Deity’s favorite after the housefly” to “I couldn’t find honest employment, so I became a newspaper reporter” to “nothing needs reforming so much as other people’s habits.”

As he approached intermissions, he termed them either “a rest period” or “this is your first opportunity to escape, for no one wants to be talked to death.”

Mr. Holbrook was particularly hilarious, but still remained apropos of the ways of the world, when he provided some advice for young people, in which he stressed the fine art of lying.

Turning from high humor, dry wit and satire most adeptly, the actor was particularly moving in a major excerpt from “Huckleberry Finn” and received sustained applause for his performance.