Richard Thomas considers Mark Twain an equal-opportunity offender.
“There’s something to make everybody laugh and something to make everybody go, ‘Ouch,’” he said of the American writer and humorist.
Thomas is discovering how Twain’s social commentary zings in various pockets of the country as he tours with “Mark Twain Tonight!,” the Tony-winning one-man play performed by Hal Holbrook for more than six decades.
“We’re sending it out to a whole bunch of cities to see if people are ready to hear Twain’s dark humor and appraisal again,” said Thomas, who is the first actor to be approved by Holbrook’s estate to perform the show. “Twain has such a clear picture of what’s terrific and what’s ailing about America. And he hasn’t lost his edge.”
It’s an adventure that Thomas — who grew up traveling with his dancer parents before his star ascended as John-Boy on “The Waltons” — seems destined for, with a brisk schedule of one-day stops through February.
A big show is like a miliary campaign, said Thomas, who portrayed Atticus Finch in the first national tour of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” starting in 2022. “This is crazy. This is a version of the road I’ve never experienced before.”
Come spring, Thomas will be back on Broadway, and down the street from his Manhattan home, in “The Balusters,” a new play by David Lindsay-Abaire.
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The post For Richard Thomas, Life Is Best Lived on a Stage appeared first on New York Times.
