Download PRESS RELEASE - Lobero Theatre

For Immediate Release
Press Contact: Angie Bertucci
805.966.4946 ext 610 or [email protected]
Tickets: Lobero Box Office
805.963.0761 or lobero.com
Lobero LIVE presents Hal Holbrook in
Mark Twain Tonight!
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November 10, 2012 at 8 p.m.
Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor, Hal Holbrook, in his most celebrated role
Observations of humorist and raconteur, Mark Twain, still resonate today
Presented as part of Lobero LIVE’s A Series of Wits
Santa Barbara, CA, May 5, 2017– Lobero LIVE presents Tony and Emmy award winner, Hal Holbrook in the role
of a lifetime, great American humorist Mark Twain. Created in 1954, and last seen on Broadway 28 years ago,
‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ remains to this day the most enduring and admired of all one-man shows. The New York
Times has raved about its lasting cultural relevance, calling it, “[a]s politically of-the-moment as Al Franken or Bill
Maher, Mr. Holbrook has tailored his Mark Twain handbook of quotes and set pieces to focus on the corruption
and fabrications of politicians and journalists, subjects that seem excruciatingly relevant just now.”
“A triumph! A genuine piece of theatrical history!” - New York Post
“The transformation is so complete as to be almost 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.” - Washington Post
Tickets for Mark Twain Tonight! are available now at Lobero.com and at the Lobero Box Office. Hal Holbrook’s
moving performance will close out Lobero LIVE’s newest theatre subscription offering, A Series of Wits.
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Mark Twain Tonight!
The Mark Twain characterization grew out of an honors project at Denison University after World War II. Holbrook
and his first wife, Ruby, had constructed a two-person show, playing characters from Shakespeare to Twain. After
graduation they toured the school assembly circuit in the Southwest doing 307 shows in thirty weeks and
traveling 30,000 miles by station wagon, often finding frost on their costumes on winter mornings. Their
audiences were an unruly and diverse group of all ages, and they learned to survive on stage or perish.
Holbrook’s first solo performance as Mark Twain was at the Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in
1954. While hunting for a job in New York, the show was his desperate alternative to selling hats or running
elevators to keep his family alive. That same year, fortune struck by way of a steady engagement on a daytime
television soap opera, but Holbrook continued pursuing the Twain character at night in a Greenwich Village night
club. In seven months at the club, he developed his original two hours of material and learned timing. Once Ed
Sullivan saw him perform, Twain gained national television exposure.
In 1959, after five years of researching Mark Twain and honing his material in front of countless audiences in small
towns all over America, he opened at a tiny theatre off-Broadway in New York. His overnight success was as
stunning to Holbrook as everyone else. According to the Associated Press, “The critics went wild.” The New York
Times raved, “Mr. Holbrook’s material is uproarious, and his ability to hold an audience by acting is brilliant.”
“Uncanny. A dazzling display of virtuosity,” wrote the New Yorker, and Life Magazine call it, “[o]ne of the
treasures of the American Theatre.”
Tickets for Mark Twain Tonight! are available at Lobero.com and at the Lobero Theatre Box Office, 805.963.0761.
Prices are $55, $65 with a limited number of Patron tickets available at $105. All prices include facility fee. All
Patron tickets include priority seating, pre-performance private reception, recognition in the event program and a
tax-deductible gift to the Lobero Theatre.
Lobero LIVE is funded in part by the Events and Festivals Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in
partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. Additional sponsorship for the Lobero Series of Wits is provided
by the Lobero Theatre Endowment for Theatre, the Santa Barbara Independent and KCSB 91.9 FM.
Calendar Editors, please note:
Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 8 p.m.
Lobero Theatre
Lobero LIVE presents
Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight!
“The combination of Holbrook’s physical and vocal talents and the potency of Twain’s words is a
mesmerizing thing to behold.” - Washington Post
Tickets: $55, $65 with a limited number of Patron tickets available at $105. All prices include
facility fee.
Lobero Box Office: www.Lobero.com, 805-963-0761, 33 East Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Lobero Theatre | 805.963.0761 | 33 E. Canon Perdido Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 | 2