Theater News

Once More, With Feeling

Filichia makes a list of performers who returned to their Tony Award winning roles, sometimes many seasons later.

New York City

June 23, 2005

Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly! — Carol Channing in *Hello, Dolly!*

I hear that Hal Holbrook is in the Guinness Book of Records for playing Mark Twain since time immemorial, but I think he deserves another entry as well. Holbrook won a Tony Award for his Twain in the 1965-66 season and now here he is, 40 seasons later and just past his 80th birthday, in the same role at the Brooks Atkinson. He’s still offering some of the stories and quips that made Samuel Langhorn Clemens beloved to audiences, so someone who missed any of Holbrook’s previous stints in the role or wasn’t born yet can now do the seemingly impossible (until Sunday) and see a Tony-winning performance from the 1960s.

Of course, no one would say that what the actor is doing onstage right now at the Atkinson is exactly what he did at the Longacre four decades ago. Time does take its toll. The moment I left the current production, I rushed home and watched the video of Mark Twain Tonight! that Holbrook made shortly after he won his Tony. What’s fascinating is that he looks almost exactly the same to me now — at least, based on what I saw from my F-101 seat. What has changed is his delivery; he seems to be repeating phrases, perhaps to buy time in finding the line he needs and has momentarily forgotten. A sequence in which Twain is supposed to fall asleep while telling a story lasts much longer at the Atkinson than on the video.

Sttill, if you’ve never witnessed Holbrook in this role, you should see one of these final performances. It’s akin to going to a museum and seeing one of those statues that had been in ruins and has now been put together with cement making do for the missing marble, or listening to Carol Channing do Hello, Dolly! on the 1994 cast album, made 30 years after her first stint in the part. While Channing never had a great voice to begin with — that was not the main source of her charm — she’s less certain here than she was then and sings to an occasional slower tempo. (The rest of the album sounds great.)

Returning to a role years after the fact, as Holbrook and Channing have done, is nothing new. E.A. Sothern was in Our American Cousin when it opened in 1858, again on that infamous night at Ford’s Theatre in 1865, and was still doing the show in 1879. You may recall that in Eugene O’Neill’s most esteemed play, Long Day’s Journey into Night, James Tyrone regrets that he spent his life playing one part over and over again. That wasn’t a brainchild of the author’s imagination; O’Neill certainly remembered his father complaining about starring in The Count of Monte Cristo season after season after season to the exclusion of other roles, thus causing his talent to atrophy.

So, is Channing in second place in terms of the time that elapsed between her original Tony winning performance and her last recreation of it? She opened Dolly! in 1963-64 and played it for the final time — well, I may be assuming too much here by saying “final” — 32 seasons later, in 1995-96. Impressive, yet she must be relegated to third place. Let’s take a look at the Top 20 list, including the season of the original triumph, the season of the last appearance, and the number of seasons that passed between. (Note that I recognize a season as running from June 1 to May 31, which is why Holbrook goes under 2005-06):

1. Hal Holbrook, Mark Twain Tonight: 1965-66, 2005-2006 (40 seasons)

2. Yul Brynner, The King and I: 1950-51, 1985-86 (35)

3. Carol Channing, Hello, Dolly : 1963-64, 1995-96 (32)

4. Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady: 1955-56, 1981-82 (26)

5. Joel Grey, Cabaret: 1966-67, 1988-89 (22)

6. Richard Kiley, Man of La Mancha: 1965-66, 1986-87 (21)

7. Richard Burton, Camelot: 1960-61, 1980-81 (20)

8. Angela Lansbury, Mame: 1965-66, 1983-84 (18)

9. Judd Hirsch, I’m Not Rappaport: 1985-86, 2002-03 (17)

10. Lily Tomlin, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe: 1985-86, 2000-01 (15)

11. Zero Mostel, Fiddler on the Roof: 1964-65, 1976-77 (12)

12. Donna McKechnie, A Chorus Line: 1975-76, 1986-87 (11)