Over the past 12 years San Diego theatergoers have had the good fortune of seeing actor Richard Thomas play a kaleidoscope of larger-than-life characters.
In 2014, he was the villainous Iago to Blair Underwood’s Othello at The Old Globe. Two years later, he returned to the Globe as U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the political negotiations play “Camp David.”
Actor Richard Thomas brings Hal Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight!” to San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 12. (Lia Chang)
And in 2022, he was the heroic Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in the national touring production of Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the San Diego Civic Theatre.
This week, Thomas is back in San Diego playing another iconic character in the national tour of Hal Holbrook’s performance piece “Mark Twain Tonight!”
Actor Richard Thomas studies for his role in “Mark Twain Tonight!” at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, in June 2025. (Julieta Cervantes)
A New York native, Thomas was 21 when he created the memorable role of eldest son John-Boy in the 1970s TV series “The Waltons.” Now, at 74, he’s the first actor besides Holbrook to ever star in “Mark Twain Tonight!”
The solo piece re-creates Twain’s famous oratory tours from the 1870s-1890s, where the author and raconteur spoke to audiences around the world about his books, tell stories and deliver humorous takes on politics, class, race and whatever news of the day he discovered in the local newspapers that day.
Holbrook debuted his play in 1954 and performed it on Broadway and on tour until he retired in 2017. Over the years, Holbrook gave more than 2,300 “Twain” performances to audiences of more than 2 million people.
While he was alive, Holbrook never licensed his play to any other actor. But before he passed away in 2021 at age 95, he gave his estate agents permission to bring back “Mark Twain Tonight!” if they ever found an actor who they believed could do the role justice.
Richard Thomas performs the one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight” on Thursday at San Diego’s Balboa Theatre. (T Charles Erickson)
That person was Thomas, who was friends with Holbrook for decades and who replaced Holbrook in 2012 as chair of the National Corporate Theatre Fund.
“Now this is the second time I’ve done Hal’s job,” Thomas joked, in a recent phone interview about “Mark Twain Tonight!”
Thomas said he was on the “Mockingbird” tour a few years back when he got a call from the former producers of “Mark Twain Tonight!” who said they’d gotten a call from Holbrook’s estate about reviving the show.
“I thought, ‘I know what this is. I hope this is what I think it is,’” Thomas recalled. “I said ‘Absolutely!’ It’s such great material and such a good time.”
In order to take on the monumental role, Thomas said it took some time to work his way through the monumental script. Over the years, Holbrook continuously wrote new versions of the script because he kept discovering new things about Twain’s life, work and perspective on life.
Thomas also put in some time doing research at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn.. where Twain wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” anmong other novels.
Last August, Thomas made his debut in “Mark Twain Tonight!” at the nearby Hartford Stage theater.
Now Thomas is in the midst of a 45-city U.S. tour, which arrives at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Thursday.
Thomas said he wasn’t intimidated to be filling Holbrook’s shoes, since he’s been an actor for most of his life and virtually every stage role he’s ever played has been performed by others before him. His goal isn’t to re-create Holbrook’s performance but to be faithful to the material Holbrook wrote.
“Hal is inimitable and it was a great performance. But this is a whole different ballgame,” Thomas said. “This terrific performance piece that he put together now enters the repertoire. Hopefully other actors will play it so Twain can keep moving forward.”
Richard Thomas performs the one-man show “Mark Twain Tonight” on Thursday at San Diego’s Balboa Theatre. (T Charles Erickson)
Thomas said that while Twain’s books and humor are not as much in the public eye today as they were in the 20th century, audience response to the touring show has been very positive.
“The reception has been wonderful,” he said. “Twain is just remarkable. He is so various and so rich and so much fun. His insights are so apropos of whatever America is going through. He’s not only ours, he is us.
“We have more voices in the American chorus than ever before, and that’s a good thing, but Twain is a mirror of what we have been in our time. His social evolution as a person, as a thinker and as a citizen has been parallel with the country. As he grows up and wakes up, the country grows up and wakes up, as well.”
Thomas described Twain as an “equal opportunity offender,” who could speak to prejudices on both sides of every issue.
“He’ll pop anyone’s balloon, but the first balloon he pops is his own,” Thomas said. “He’s always the first to make fun of himself, which is endearing and which maintains the egalitarian qualify of the play. Even if he says something very challenging, he’s still your friend. There’s enough humor in it, enough salt in it, that people will enjoy it.”
As the tour has wound its way across America, Thomas said that some parts of the script have landed differently with audiences, depending on the region he’s visiting and its predominating politics and religion.
“There are passages where in one part of the country they get cheers and applause, and in other parts get dead silence,” he said. “Regions have their own personalities. There are very different crowds. It’s so volatile right now and lines are so starkly drawn and people are so barricaded inside their own beliefs that I think it’s a very good time for him to try and dismantle some of this stuff.”
Thomas described the tour as a wonderful experience, because it’s visiting a lot of small towns he hasn’t seen before, and he’s been accompanied on the tour by his wife of more than 30 years, Georgiana Bischoff.
The tour’s final performance is on Feb. 22 in Ohio. Just just two days later, Thomas will start rehearsals for another play, David Lindsay-Abaire’s new “The Balusters” at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.
Thomas said “Twain” road will hit the road again in 2027, but dates have not been announced. He said he’s looking forward to taking the show back out again next year.
“It’s deliciously fun and also wonderful to be able to be intimate with the audience,” Thomas said. “He’s always talking to the audience like he’s letting them in on something. It’s a marveouls way to establish a relationship. There’s always a wink there.”
RICHARD THOMAS STARS IN ‘MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!’
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., downtown
Tickets: $61.25-$214
Online: ticketmaster.com