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Richard Thomas is returning to Fort Worth as Mark Twain.
A delicious convergence of personalities is forthcoming.
John-Boy Walton meets Mark Twain in Fort Worth
Richard Thomas, who became famous portraying John-Boy on CBS’s family drama “The Waltons,” is now channeling the spirit — and wickedly clever mischief — of Mark Twain.
“Mark Twain Tonight!” arrives at Bass Hall on Tuesday night in the one-man show made famous by Hal Holbrook. The 90-minute performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Get tickets here.
“Oh, he'd love it,” says Thomas of John-Boy, who dreamed of being a writer like Twain. “I think he'd be very inspired, and he would take Twain's example as a cue to go as far as he could and express himself as honestly and fully as possible because that's what Twain does to his writing.
“He's such a rich personality that when you're playing him, it's not like you're just saying his words. His words are so infused with his own qualities as a person, you really feel like the words carry the character with him. Yeah, [John-Boy] would probably have been deeply inspired.”
The shows on Tuesday — a matinee performance for school children is on the schedule — mark a return to Fort Worth for Thomas, who starred as Atticus Finch in the national tour of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which came to town in 2023.
Mark Twain — born Samuel Clemens — remains one of America’s great satirists, using humor as a moral weapon to expose hypocrisy in religion, politics, imperialism, racism, polite society, and wherever else it tried to hide.
Twain missed his moment for the current political climate.
“We know, we kind of know what Twain would think of today,” says Thomas, 74.
Ron Chernow’s new biography, Mark Twain, illuminates the origins of Twain’s enduring suspicion of institutions, mob mentality, and entrenched orthodoxy and conventional wisdom.
The Chernow book, Thomas says, was the third biography he’s read on Twain since immersing himself in the subject upon learning he had gotten the part.
“I was not a deep scholar of Twain at all, but I read obviously what was assigned in school and other things,” Thomas says. “But I knew him mostly as the way most people do, as a just a great aphorist, all these great savings, all of his wonderfully satirical one-liners. But it's very different to appreciate an author and know a bit about an author, and then just sort of do a deep dive.
“Actors love to research. Now I can't get enough of him. I can't stop reading about him or his own work, so that's really been very gratifying and fun.”
In addition to life as an author, Twain was a prolific performer, taking his lecture circuit across the world. It’s in the spirit of what you’ll see on Tuesday.
“Even though he would maybe pretend to be giving a lecture on the Hawaiian Islands, it would really be a wonderful opportunity to have fun,” Thomas said. “He was great at it, and he became internationally famous.”
Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight!” premiered on Broadway in 1966, earning him a Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a play. Holbrook’s Twain was brought to a national audience in a CBS television adaptation that earned the actor an Emmy Award nomination. Holbrook died in 2021.
Thomas says he jumped at the chance to take up Holbrook’s Twain mantle. He was on tour with "To Kill a Mockingbird" when opportunity knocked.
“The minute he said, ‘Hal Holbrook' I thought, ‘OK, I hope this is what I think it is,’ which is insane because nobody has ever done it other than Hal. Obviously, it was his life's work and it's completely associated with him, and how dare this other actor come in and take over the story.
“But the thing is, he created such a wonderful piece of performance work, and it's such a terrific way to get to know Twain that it's something that should be done. I mean, after I'm done with it, I would hope that other actors would do it. Somebody's got to be the first to pick up the flag and go. I'm happy it's me.”
