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Superb simplicity

February 4, 2021 by Terry Teachout

In today’s Wall Street Journal I pay tribute to Hal Holbrook. Here’s an excerpt.

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Hal Holbrook, who died on Jan. 23 at age 95—his death was announced this week—spent most of his long career working in television, first as a soap-opera lead, then in series, miniseries and made-for-TV movies that are almost entirely forgotten today (who now remembers “The Bold Ones: The Senator”?) save by wizened couch potatoes. He was rarely seen on Broadway, and on the big screen he generally appeared in choice but small character roles…

Yet Mr. Holbrook is remembered to this day for his two greatest stage roles, both of which he also had the uncommon good luck to perform in very fine TV versions that remain in circulation. (They can be viewed on YouTube.)

Not surprisingly, they were character roles, but of a kind that most actors would kill to play, and one of them was in a show of his own meticulous and imaginative devising. In 1948, Mr. Holbrook began performing a monologue in which he portrayed Mark Twain, eventually doing it in New York nightclubs, on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and on Broadway, where it had three separate runs, in 1966, 1977 and 2005. In addition, “Mark Twain Tonight!”(as the full-evening version was called) was telecast in prime time on CBS in 1967, and that oft-repeated TV version made him a star.

Ten years later, Mr. Holbrook played the Stage Manager in a made-for-TV version of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” directed in the studio by George Schaefer. Though he never appeared in the role in New York, he played it more than once in regional-theater productions, most recently at Hartford Stage in a 2007 revival directed by Gregory Boyd that I called “the finest ‘Our Town’ I have ever seen or hope to see.”

What was it about Mr. Holbrook that made it possible for him to give unforgettable performances of two such different roles?…

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Almanac: Mark Twain on honesty

February 4, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

Mark Twain, notebook entry, January or February 1894, 

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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