Folks, in the spirit of the many reviews of Twain performance gracing our list recently-- A brief review of MT Tonight, @ UMSL in St. Louis on Saturday April 11: The show was spectacular. I've actually never seen any one-person show, and until Saturday had never seen Hal Holbrook's performance of MT Tonight. To cut to the chase: it was spellbinding; and the talent to pull that off is really off the charts. Imagine doing that at 90!! I hope you will all recognize my gratitude and compliments to Hal. It was very cool hearing many famous passages delivered from a walking and talking near-version of Twain. In particular I was mesmerized by Hal's use of the moments of silence -- including the Jim Blaine tale when the actor pretends to fall asleep. The way he takes on the character fully is really quite a spectacle. The audience seems uncertain what exactly is happening. There is much laughter as confused observers squirm in their seats. The dramatization of Huck Finn (the feud scenes with Grangerfords & Shepherdsons) was quite long but extremely powerful. All in all, I suspect I will remember the performance for a very long time, and I am grateful I made the time and arrangements to see it. Highly recommended! -hb -- Prof. Harold K. Bush Professor of English 3800 Lindell Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>