You’ve seen the musicals. You’ve listened to the soundtracks and followed their careers through television and movies. Now you can enjoy performances at Walton Arts Center in January with two of the biggest Broadway stars and leading men. Join us for a unique theatrical production with Richard Thomas on Friday, Jan. 23 and for a night of great music and stories with Mandy Patinkin on Thursday. Jan. 29.
Emmy Award®-winning actor Richard Thomas leads a new production of Mark Twain Tonight!, as the first and only actor authorized to perform the play which was written and originally performed by Hal Holbrook. Millions have cheered for this legendary one-man show, bursting with Twain’s “uproariously funny” and “pungently wise” (Time Magazine) commentary.
Thomas won an Emmy Award and received multiple Golden Globe Award® nominations for his starring role as John-Boy Walton in the television drama “The Waltons.” He is most recognizable to contemporary television audiences for his roles in the hit series “Ozark,” “The Americans,” “Billions” and the original Stephen King mini-series “It.” His feature film performances include The Unforgivable, Wonder Boys, Last Summer, Red Sky at Morning and Taking Woodstock.
Photo of Richard Thomas by Julieta Cervantes. Photographed at the Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.
He has been seen in acclaimed performances on stage including the revival of The Little Foxes, for which he received a Tony Award® nomination, Our Town, You Can’t Take it With You, The Great Society, Race, Democracy, Incident at Vichy (Drama Desk Award nomination), The Stendhal Syndrome (Lucille Lortel Award nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, An Enemy of the People, Tiny Alice, The Front Page, The Fifth of July, innumerable Shakespeare productions and his professional debut at 8 years old in Sunrise at Campobello. Across the country he has starred in the national tours of The Humans (Elliot Norton Award), Twelve Angry Men and for three years as “Atticus Finch” in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird which stopped at Walton Arts Center in April 2023. Thomas previously served as the Honorary Chair of the National Corporate Theatre Fund, a position also held by his predecessor Hal Holbrook. He is a 2025 inductee to the Theater Hall of Fame.
Photo credit: Joan Marcus
Mandy Patinkin has carved out a varied career including theater, the concert stage, film, television and as a recording artist, and he shares stories and songs from his past at his new show, JUKEBOX with Adam Ben-David on Piano.
The award-winning Broadway and TV legend – renowned for creating timeless characters in movies such as The Princess Bride, Yentl and Dick Tracy – hand-picks and performs a collection of classic musical numbers, expressed as only he can through a unique mastery of word and song. This will be an unparalleled body of work from one of North America’s preeminent entertainers.
In his 1980 Broadway debut, Patinkin won a Tony Award for his role as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, directed by Hal Prince, and was nominated in 1984 for his starring role as George in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George. His other stage credits include Compulsion, Paradise Found, The Tempest, Enemy of the People, The Wild Party, Falsettos, The Secret Garden, The Winter's Tale, The Knife, Leave It to Beaver is Dead, Rebel Women, Hamlet, Trelawney of the ‘Wells,’ The Shadow Box, The Split, Savages and Henry IV, Part I.
Patinkin’s feature films include Before You Know It, Life Itself, Wonder, Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Queen of Spain, Ali and Nino, Wish I Was Here, The Wind Rises, Everybody’s Hero, The Choking Man, Pinero, The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland, Lulu on the Bridge, Men with Guns, The Princess Bride, Yentl, The Music of Chance, Daniel, Ragtime, Impromptu, The Doctor, Alien Nation, Dick Tracy, The House on Carroll Street, True Colors and Maxie.
In television, Patinkin was recently seen as Judge Wackner in the Paramount+ series “The Good Fight.” He won a 1995 Emmy Award for his performance in the CBS series “Chicago Hope.” He starred in the CBS series “Criminal Minds,” in the Showtime Original Series “Dead Like Me” and also in “Homeland” as CIA Agent Saul Berenson.
During COVID Patinkin found an entirely new audience when his son, Gideon Grody-Patinkin, began filming his parents interactions. Patinkin and wife Kathryn Grody's candid videos of them arguing, snuggling and discussing politics went viral and turned them into unlikely social media stars.