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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Richard Thomas dons wig and mustache to play icon Mark Twain in one-man play touring the US
NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Thomas has not one but two big shoes to fill when he goes out on the road this summer in a celebrated one-man show. The Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee is portraying the great American writer Mark Twain in a play written and performed for decades by the late Hal Holbrook. Thomas immediately accepted the offer to star in the 90-minute 'Mark Twain Tonight!' that tours more than a dozen states this summer and fall before wondering what he'd gotten himself into. 'I walked down to the street and I said, 'Are you crazy? What are you out of your mind?'' he says, laughing. 'I had to grapple with who's the bigger fool — the man who says, 'Yes, I'll do it' or the man that says, 'No, I won't'?' Holbrook portrayed the popular novelist and humorist for more than a half century starting in 1954, making over 2,300 performances to a collective audience of more than 2 million. He and Thomas were fond of each other and would see each other's work. The show mixes Twain's speeches and passages from his books and letters to offer a multidimensional look at an American icon, who toured the U.S. with appearances. 'I'm going to feel very much like I'm not only following in Hal's footsteps, but in Twain's as well,' says Thomas, who began his career as John-Boy Walton on TV's 'The Waltons' and became a Broadway mainstay. Thomas jokes that Holbrook had 50 years to settle into the role and he has only a year or so. 'I have the advantage on him that he started when he was 30 and he was pretending to be an old man. I'm 74 so I'm right there. That's the one area where I'm up on him.' 'It's time for Twain' The new tour kicks off this week in Hartford, Connecticut — appropriately enough, one of the places Twain lived — and then goes to Maryland, Iowa, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Utah, California, Arizona, Alabama, Utah and Florida by Christmastime. Then in 2026 — the 60th anniversary of the Broadway premiere — it goes to Texas, Colorado, Wisconsin and Ohio. 'It's time for Twain, you know? I mean, it's always time for Twain, always. He's always relevant because he's utterly and completely us, with warts and all,' says Thomas. The actor will travel with a stage manager and a trunk with his costumes, but all the other elements will be sourced locally by the venues — like desks and chairs, giving each show local touches. 'There's something about doing a show for people in their own community, in their theater that they support, that they raise money for. They're not coming to you as tourists. You're coming to them.' Thomas has done a one-man show before — 'A Distant Country Called Youth' using Tennessee Williams letters — but that allowed him to read from the script on stage. Here he has no such help. 'One of the keys is to balance the light and the shadow, how funny, how outrageous, the polemic and the darkness and the light. You want that balanced beautifully,' he says. Twain represents America Other actors — notably Val Kilmer and Jerry Hardin — have devised one-man shows about the creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, who still manages to fascinate. A new biography of Twain by Ron Chernow came out this year, which Thomas is churning through. Thomas sees Twain as representing America perfectly: 'He just lets it all hang out there. He's mean-spirited; he's generous. He's bigoted; he is progressive. He hates money; he wants to be the richest man in America. All of these fabulous contradictions are on display.' Thomas has lately become a road rat, touring in 'Twelve Angry Men' from 2006-08, 'The Humans' in 2018 and starring as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from 2022-24. Orin Wolf, CEO of tour producer NETworks Presentations, got to watch Thomas on the road in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and says having him step into Twain will strengthen the theater community across the country Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. 'It's so rare nowadays to have a true star of the road,' Wolf says, calling Thomas 'a breed of actor and artist that they rarely make anymore.' 'I'm delighted to be supporting him and delighted that he's chosen to do this because I think this is something he could also take on for hopefully many years,' he adds. After Twain, Thomas will next be seen on Broadway this spring opposite Renée Elise Goldsberry and Marylouise Burke in David Lindsay-Abaire's new comedy, 'The Balusters.' But first there's the eloquence and wry humor in a show about Twain that reveals he was often a frustrated optimist when it came to America. 'I think it reflects right now a lot of our frustration with how things are going,' says Thomas. 'Will things ever be better and can things ever better? Or are we just doomed to just be this species that is going to constantly eat its own tail and are we ever going to move forward?'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Richard Thomas dons wig and mustache to play icon Mark Twain in one-man play touring the US
NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Thomas has not one but two big shoes to fill when he goes out on the road this summer in a celebrated one-man show. The Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee is portraying the great American writer Mark Twain in a play written and performed for decades by the late Hal Holbrook. Thomas immediately accepted the offer to star in the 90-minute 'Mark Twain Tonight!' that tours more than a dozen states this summer and fall before wondering what he'd gotten himself into. 'I walked down to the street and I said, 'Are you crazy? What are you out of your mind?'' he says, laughing. 'I had to grapple with who's the bigger fool — the man who says, 'Yes, I'll do it' or the man that says, 'No, I won't'?' Holbrook portrayed the popular novelist and humorist for more than a half century starting in 1954, making over 2,300 performances to a collective audience of more than 2 million. He and Thomas were fond of each other and would see each other's work. The show mixes Twain's speeches and passages from his books and letters to offer a multidimensional look at an American icon, who toured the U.S. with appearances. 'I'm going to feel very much like I'm not only following in Hal's footsteps, but in Twain's as well,' says Thomas, who began his career as John-Boy Walton on TV's 'The Waltons' and became a Broadway mainstay. Thomas jokes that Holbrook had 50 years to settle into the role and he has only a year or so. 'I have the advantage on him that he started when he was 30 and he was pretending to be an old man. I'm 74 so I'm right there. That's the one area where I'm up on him.' 'It's time for Twain' The new tour kicks off this week in Hartford, Connecticut — appropriately enough, one of the places Twain lived — and then goes to Maryland, Iowa, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Utah, California, Arizona, Alabama, Utah and Florida by Christmastime. Then in 2026 — the 60th anniversary of the Broadway premiere — it goes to Texas, Colorado, Wisconsin and Ohio. 'It's time for Twain, you know? I mean, it's always time for Twain, always. He's always relevant because he's utterly and completely us, with warts and all,' says Thomas. The actor will travel with a stage manager and a trunk with his costumes, but all the other elements will be sourced locally by the venues — like desks and chairs, giving each show local touches. 'There's something about doing a show for people in their own community, in their theater that they support, that they raise money for. They're not coming to you as tourists. You're coming to them.' Thomas has done a one-man show before — 'A Distant Country Called Youth' using Tennessee Williams letters — but that allowed him to read from the script on stage. Here he has no such help. 'One of the keys is to balance the light and the shadow, how funny, how outrageous, the polemic and the darkness and the light. You want that balanced beautifully,' he says. Twain represents America Other actors — notably Val Kilmer and Jerry Hardin — have devised one-man shows about the creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, who still manages to fascinate. A new biography of Twain by Ron Chernow came out this year, which Thomas is churning through. Thomas sees Twain as representing America perfectly: 'He just lets it all hang out there. He's mean-spirited; he's generous. He's bigoted; he is progressive. He hates money; he wants to be the richest man in America. All of these fabulous contradictions are on display.' Thomas has lately become a road rat, touring in 'Twelve Angry Men' from 2006-08, 'The Humans' in 2018 and starring as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from 2022-24. Orin Wolf, CEO of tour producer NETworks Presentations, got to watch Thomas on the road in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and says having him step into Twain will strengthen the theater community across the country 'It's so rare nowadays to have a true star of the road,' Wolf says, calling Thomas 'a breed of actor and artist that they rarely make anymore.' 'I'm delighted to be supporting him and delighted that he's chosen to do this because I think this is something he could also take on for hopefully many years,' he adds. After Twain, Thomas will next be seen on Broadway this spring opposite Renée Elise Goldsberry and Marylouise Burke in David Lindsay-Abaire's new comedy, 'The Balusters.' But first there's the eloquence and wry humor in a show about Twain that reveals he was often a frustrated optimist when it came to America. 'I think it reflects right now a lot of our frustration with how things are going,' says Thomas. 'Will things ever be better and can things ever better? Or are we just doomed to just be this species that is going to constantly eat its own tail and are we ever going to move forward?'
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Richard Thomas dons wig and mustache to play icon Mark Twain in one-man play touring the US
NEW YORK — Richard Thomas has not one but two big shoes to fill when he goes out on the road this summer in a celebrated one-man show. Richard Thomas dons wig and mustache to play icon Mark Twain in one-man play touring the US The Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee is portraying the great American writer Mark Twain in a play written and performed for decades by the late Hal Holbrook. Thomas immediately accepted the offer to star in the 90-minute 'Mark Twain Tonight!' that tours more than a dozen states this summer and fall before wondering what he'd gotten himself into. 'I walked down to the street and I said, 'Are you crazy? What are you out of your mind?'' he says, laughing. 'I had to grapple with who's the bigger fool — the man who says, 'Yes, I'll do it' or the man that says, 'No, I won't'?' Holbrook portrayed the popular novelist and humorist for more than a half century starting in 1954, making over 2,300 performances to a collective audience of more than 2 million. He and Thomas were fond of each other and would see each other's work. The show mixes Twain's speeches and passages from his books and letters to offer a multidimensional look at an American icon, who toured the U.S. with appearances. 'I'm going to feel very much like I'm not only following in Hal's footsteps, but in Twain's as well,' says Thomas, who began his career as John-Boy Walton on TV's 'The Waltons' and became a Broadway mainstay. Thomas jokes that Holbrook had 50 years to settle into the role and he has only a year or so. 'I have the advantage on him that he started when he was 30 and he was pretending to be an old man. I'm 74 so I'm right there. That's the one area where I'm up on him.' The new tour kicks off this week in Hartford, Connecticut — appropriately enough, one of the places Twain lived — and then goes to Maryland, Iowa, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Utah, California, Arizona, Alabama, Utah and Florida by Christmastime. Then in 2026 — the 60th anniversary of the Broadway premiere — it goes to Texas, Colorado, Wisconsin and Ohio. 'It's time for Twain, you know? I mean, it's always time for Twain, always. He's always relevant because he's utterly and completely us, with warts and all,' says Thomas. The actor will travel with a stage manager and a trunk with his costumes, but all the other elements will be sourced locally by the venues — like desks and chairs, giving each show local touches. 'There's something about doing a show for people in their own community, in their theater that they support, that they raise money for. They're not coming to you as tourists. You're coming to them.' Thomas has done a one-man show before — 'A Distant Country Called Youth' using Tennessee Williams letters — but that allowed him to read from the script on stage. Here he has no such help. 'One of the keys is to balance the light and the shadow, how funny, how outrageous, the polemic and the darkness and the light. You want that balanced beautifully,' he says. Other actors — notably Val Kilmer and Jerry Hardin — have devised one-man shows about the creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, who still manages to fascinate. A new biography of Twain by Ron Chernow came out this year, which Thomas is churning through. Thomas sees Twain as representing America perfectly: 'He just lets it all hang out there. He's mean-spirited; he's generous. He's bigoted; he is progressive. He hates money; he wants to be the richest man in America. All of these fabulous contradictions are on display.' Thomas has lately become a road rat, touring in 'Twelve Angry Men' from 2006-08, 'The Humans' in 2018 and starring as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from 2022-24. Orin Wolf, CEO of tour producer NETworks Presentations, got to watch Thomas on the road in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and says having him step into Twain will strengthen the theater community across the country 'It's so rare nowadays to have a true star of the road,' Wolf says, calling Thomas 'a breed of actor and artist that they rarely make anymore.' 'I'm delighted to be supporting him and delighted that he's chosen to do this because I think this is something he could also take on for hopefully many years,' he adds. After Twain, Thomas will next be seen on Broadway this spring opposite Renée Elise Goldsberry and Marylouise Burke in David Lindsay-Abaire's new comedy, 'The Balusters.' But first there's the eloquence and wry humor in a show about Twain that reveals he was often a frustrated optimist when it came to America. 'I think it reflects right now a lot of our frustration with how things are going,' says Thomas. 'Will things ever be better and can things ever better? Or are we just doomed to just be this species that is going to constantly eat its own tail and are we ever going to move forward?' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Chicago Tribune
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Heights native Lynn Hamilton, who had roles in ‘Sanford and Son' and ‘227,' dies at 95
Actress and Chicago Heights native Lynn Hamilton worked steadily in TV for many years, with recurring roles in the hit shows 'Sanford and Son,' 'The Waltons' and '227.' 'She was a very good actress — it was (due to) the work that she put in,' said actress and Chicago native Marla Gibbs, 94, who starred in '227,' a sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1990. 'She (also) was a very nice person.' Hamilton, 95, died of natural causes on June 19, said her publicist, Calvin Carson. She had lived in Chicago since 2015 after moving to the city from Los Angeles. Born Alzenia Lynn Hamilton in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Hamilton moved with her family to Chicago Heights at age 4. She graduated in 1947 from Bloom High School, where she was a member of the drama club. 'From that point on, I was able to, as I grew up, I was fairly attractive, and I was able to get into the modeling profession, and at which point I discovered the Goodman Theatre, which is in Chicago, and I went to the Goodman Theatre for four years and got my B.A. degree,' Hamilton said in a video interview in 2009. 'I learned all I could about acting, because I felt that were I to become an actress, it was necessary that I know my craft, that I'm able to do everything. I felt that I needed to be versatile.' After receiving a bachelor's degree from the Goodman School of Drama at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hamilton took roles in local productions. A December 1953 Tribune article listed Hamilton as one of the Skyloft Players — a Black acting company that had gained renown in the 1940s — performing alongside future radio star Herb Kent in a play. Skyloft performed in a former orphanage at 5120 S. Park Way — now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive — in the South Side Washington Park neighborhood. The former orphanage was the home of the Park Way Community House, a social and cultural center for the South Side's Black community, and the Skyloft Players staged work from Black writers like Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. In the 2009 interview, Hamilton noted she was the only Black person in her class at the Goodman. 'And so there weren't any roles for me, and so I was able to supplement my experience by working in a Black theater company on Chicago's South Side, and that was the beginning,' she said. In the late 1950s, Hamilton moved to New York City, working for three years at the New York Shakespeare Festival and performing in four Broadway shows, including the short-lived 1959 play 'Only in America,' which starred Alan Alda. After about a dozen years in New York, Hamilton relocated to Seattle for a year to do repertory theater. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s and pursued television and movie roles. In her first year in Los Angeles, Hamilton scored guest spots on well-known programs, including 'Mannix' and 'Gunsmoke.' Other roles followed, including on 'Hawaii Five-O' and 'Barnaby Jones.' Hamilton was hired for her most notable role in 1972, as a nurse who becomes engaged to wisecracking junk dealer Fred Sanford — played by Redd Foxx — on the sitcom 'Sanford and Son.' Hamilton appeared in 22 episodes of 'Sanford and Son,' and had a recurring role in 18 episodes of the historical drama series 'The Waltons.' Hamilton was initially cast as a landlady in 'Sanford and Son,' and she used her theatrical training to impress the show's producers. In her lone scene as a landlady, her character was asked to evict Lamont, Fred Sanford's son. 'They said you can be as big as you want to be and I thought, oh my God, I can use my stage stuff,' Hamilton said in the 2009 interview. 'And so that one scene, they were so impressed with that one scene that … a month or so later, they decided to give Fred Sanford a girlfriend, and I among, oh, I don't know 100 other actresses in Hollywood auditioned, and we had screen tests.' Red Foxx 'was impressed with my experience and he always said, 'You're so dignified, and I need somebody dignified opposite me.' He was aware of his earthiness, shall we say,' she said. Hamilton continued acting in small TV roles during the 1980s, including on shows like 'Highway to Heaven,' 'Riptide' and 'The New Leave It to Beaver.' She picked up a recurring role on '227' in 1996, appearing with Gibbs in five episodes. In the early 1990s, Hamilton acted in more than 50 episodes of a syndicated nighttime soap opera about female prisoners, 'Dangerous Women.' In a 2002 episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' she played the mother of comedian Wanda Sykes' character. After Hamilton's husband of 50 years, poet and playwright Frank Jenkins, died in 2014, she returned to live in the Chicago area. She was also preceded in death by a daughter. Hamilton is survived by four grandchildren. A service in Los Angeles is being planned. In the 2009 interview, Hamilton expressed optimism for the opportunities available for African Americans who are interested in pursuing a career in acting. 'If this is your desire, get the proper training, first and foremost, and go for it,' she said. 'Because I think that African-Americans can go straight to the top now. The opportunities are there. We have African-American producers and African-American writers and heads of studios. The opportunities are there.'
Los Angeles Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Lynn Hamilton, veteran actor and dignified foil to Redd Foxx on ‘Sanford and Son,' dies at 95
Lynn Hamilton, an actor who made her mark on 'Sanford and Son' and 'The Waltons' and appeared in 132 episodes of 'Generations,' the first Black daytime drama, has died. Hamilton died Thursday surrounded by her grandchildren, loved ones and caregivers, her former manager and publicist the Rev. Calvin Carlson said in an announcement Sunday on social media. 'Her passing marks the end of an era,' Carlson wrote, 'but her legacy will continue to inspire and uplift future generations.' Born Alzenia Lynn Hamilton on April 25, 1930, in Yazoo City, Miss., and raised from age 12 in Chicago, she studied acting at the Goodman Theatre and later earned a bachelor of arts degree. She didn't see much success until she hit New York City, where she was in shows on Broadway and off and did Shakespeare in the Park. Hamilton was the first cast member onstage in the 1959 production of 'Only in America,' which featured a young Alan Alda at what is now the James Earl Jones Theatre. By the time the 1960s rolled around, she had joined the Seattle Repertory Theatre, where she met her husband, poet-playwright Frank Jenkins. They moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and by 1972 she had landed the recurring role of Donna Harris, actor Redd Foxx's nurse girlfriend and later his fiancée on 'Sanford and Son.' Makeup made her look older than she was, as Foxx — who died in 1991 — was eight years her senior. 'I like the show,' Hamilton said in an October 1972 interview. 'I think what the world needs is to laugh more and to love more and 'Sanford and Son' helps. On Friday night, when the show is on, I can hear the laughter coming at the same time from all the homes around me.' Hamilton told actor-singer-author Demetris Dennis Taylor, a.k.a. Big Meach (no relation to the Black Mafia Family founder), on his online talk show 'Dishing Tea' that she was chosen for the role from about '100 other actresses in Hollywood' who auditioned. She said raunchy comedian Foxx was 'impressed with my experience and he always said, 'You're so dignified' and 'I need somebody dignified opposite me.' 'He was aware of his, what, his earthiness, shall we say.' On 'The Waltons' she played Verdie Grant Foster, a character whose grandparents had been enslaved. Hamilton told Big Meach that Verdie was a role she was proud of because 'she proved that you can improve yourself at any time in your life. When we first see her ... she's a successful, accomplished wife and mother and had a good job and was well respected, but she couldn't read. And of course John-Boy [played by Richard Thomas] taught her how to read. ' Learning, Hamilton said, 'opened up a whole new world' for the character. The Verdie role recurred over the nine seasons the show ran. Hamilton won an NAACP Image Award for her 1984 performance in the original production of Christine Houston's play '227' at Marla Gibbs' Crossroads Theater in Los Angeles. She and Gibbs alternated in the play's female lead role. In 1985, she was proclaimed half of the 'most amusing twosome' in Celeste Walker's 'Reunion in Bartersville,' a play about members of a Black, small-town Texas high school's Class of 1933 who reunite 50 years down the line. Hamilton played nightclub owner Pollina, who brings along a 28-year-old spouse — the character's fifth husband. 'As a light vehicle for older black actors, [the play] runs like a well-tuned sports car,' The Times said in its review. Hamilton helped raise money in 1987 for skid row's Midnight Mission, joining in a benefit performance of Studs Terkel's 'Hard Times' at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Her castmates were Tyne Daly, John Lithgow, Martin Sheen, Ned Beatty, Barry Bostwick, Nan Martin, Doris Roberts and — wait for it — Little Richard. Husband and wife collaborated frequently, and as the new century began, Hamilton directed 'Driving While Black in Beverly Hills,' written by Jenkins. Set in 1970, it addressed racial profiling: The success and social status of the play's protagonist mean nothing to the police who target him and his companions because of their skin color. Hamilton had urged her husband to keep reworking a play he had started writing in 1968 about a wronged Black motorist. Fifteen drafts and 30 years later, that play became 'Driving While Black.' They found a producer in 2000 after a staged reading of the show, and that producer suggested Hamilton direct after learning that she had suggested elements of the reading that he liked. 'Under Lynn Hamilton's focused staging, the fine cast makes the play's earnest, often eloquent articulation of its issues affecting and persuasive,' The Times said in its March 2001 review of the show at the intimate Matrix Theatre on Melrose — though the critic also noted that the play's numerous lengthy speeches undermined its dramatic reality. 'Their partnership was a shining example of creativity, love, and dedication,' manager Carlson wrote Sunday. They also collaborated on the plays 'Nobody' and 'The Bert Williams Story.' Hamilton was still doing episodic TV into the 2000s, notching credits on 'NYPD Blue,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' 'Cold Case' and more after the turn of the century. Her many other acting gigs included roles in 'Dangerous Women,' 'Roots: The Next Generation,' 'A Dream for Christmas,' 'The Jesse Owens Story,' 'The Practice' and 'Lady Sings the Blues.' In an undated interview taped by her manager, she advised young performers to 'first and foremost, get proper training' in voice and diction. 'I'm amazed at the youngsters today. I can't understand what they're saying,' she said. 'Acting is a form of communication. You are trying to communicate to your audience what it is the playwright has given you to portray. And if I can't understand what you are saying, then everything is lost.'
