Hal Holbrook Brings MARK TWAIN TONIGHT to Mesa Arts Center, 2/9

HAl Holbrook, an Emmy and Tony Award winning actor, comes to the Mesa Arts Center on Saturday, February 9 at 8:00 p.m. to perform Mark Twain Tonight in the Ikeda Theater. HAl Holbrook's performance as Mark Twain garnered him a Tony Award and was responsible for his first ten Emmy Award nominations. Tickets are available through the Mesa Arts Center Box Office at MesaArtsCenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500.

Though he has had a remarkable career on stage, HAl Holbrook made a name for himself primarily on television. He was memorable as Abraham Lincoln, as Senator Hays Stowe on "The Bold Ones: The Senator" (1970), and as Captain Lloyd Butcher on "Pueblo" (1973). Holbrook's roles on television won him even more Emmy Awards and he achieved two for his role on "Pueblo". He made a guest appearance on "The West Wing" and also starred in two films based on the John Grisham books The Firm and The Street Lawyer. In 2008, HAl Holbrook became the oldest man, at the age of 82, to be nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in Into the Wild.

When Holbrook was in college, his senior honors project was mainly centered on the works of Mark Twain. He later developed a one man show which he first performed in 1954 at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania. After the show received positive feedback, he fine-tuned the show and took it to Off-Broadway in 1959. His performance as Mark Twain was so successful that he opened on Broadway and eventually took home a Tony Award in 1966. The show was also taped and so he won another Emmy nomination. He reprised his role as Mark Twain on Broadway in 1977 and again in 2005. By then, he had performed as Mark Twain over 2,000 times and has continued to delight the world with his one man show. HAl Holbrook has performed as Mark Twain from Saudi Arabia to Warsaw to Edinburgh to New Delhi and now, for the third time, in Mesa, Arizona.